Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, February 04, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened broadly lower as investors took profits from last week's big gains. More selling was linked to brokerage downgrades on a number of big banks. By mid-session, the Dow was off 81 points, NASDAQ down 21. The market continued its downward course after brokerage downgrades on the major credit card issuers. The sell off was made worse by a rise in oil futures and stocks ended near the day's lowest levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed off 108.03 points at 12,635.16. The NASDAQ Composite fell 30 1/2 points to 2382.85, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 14.60 ending at 1380.82. In the bond market, the 10-year note lost 14/32 to 104 30/32, putting the yield at 3.65 percent.
Big board volume leader on 22 1/4 million shares, Citigroup (C) down $0.47.
Followed by General Electric (GE) with a $0.79 loss.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) down $2.26. The Stifel Nicholas brokerage downgraded it from "hold" to "sell" and Merrill Lynch also put out a "sell" recommendation on Wells Fargo.
The whole financial group weak, Washington Mutual (WM) included, down $2.66.
Bank of America (BAC) lost $1 per share.
And Ford Motor Co (F) a $0.17 drop.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) losing $2.03.
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.23 drop.
Wachovia (WB) down $3.23. Merrill Lynch downgraded it from "hold" to an outright "sell."
And then Motorola (MOT) tenth in volume was down $0.47, not too many gainers there.
American Express (AXP) off $1.94. UBS Financial downgraded it to a "sell."
As it did with Capital One Financial (COF) and Discover Financial (DFS). UBS apparently thinks that the consumer is pretty well tapped out and we'll see a recession not too far down the line. Anyway, significant gains in those credit card issuing companies.
Archer-Daniels (ADM) off $1.30. Second quarter earnings $0.73, up from $0.67 last year and that's a penny below the Street estimate.
Clorox Co (CLX) down $2.36. Second quarter earnings down 4.2 percent to $92 million from $96 million a year ago, but earnings per share were up to $0.65 from $0.62 last year because fewer shares are outstanding now. But the company did cut its 2008 outlook.
Humana (HUM) down $2.86. Fourth quarter earnings jumped 57 percent to $1.43 from only $0.92 a year ago, but the stock still down in this market today.
Greenbrier Co (GBX) up almost $4. The railroad equipment manufacturer and an SEC filing from Carl Icahn discovered he owns 1 1/2 million shares or 9 1/2 percent of the stock and he may seek a merger with American Rail Car where Icahn is the chairman of the board. American Rail Car stock was up $2.95 to $20.62.
$ Thrifty Auto (DTS) tumbling $9.62. The rental car company cut its 2007 guidance which was $1.80 a share all the way down to $0.90 to $0.95 and other rental car shares were weak as well.
Wendy's Intl (WEN) losing $1.25. Fourth quarter earnings excluding items, $0.21. That's $0.02 below the Street estimate.
WM Wrigley Jr. (WWY) down $0.87, even though fourth quarter earnings were up 20 percent over last year, $0.56 versus $0.46 then and $0.03 above the Street estimate and the board has now approved a new 800 million share stock buyback.
Volume leader on NASDAQ, Google (GOOG) plunging $20.47 after a $48 plunge last Friday on possible competition from the Yahoo! Microsoft merger if there is one. This is the first time Google's been below $500 a share since August incidentally.
Apple (AAPL) down $2.10.
Yahoo! (YHOO) itself up another $0.95, gained over $9 Friday on the bid for Microsoft.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.26.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) off $1.12.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $2.69.
$0.57 loss in Intel (INTC).
Research in Motion (RIMM) $0.93 gain.
First Solar (FSLR) up nearly $7.
Amazon.com (AMZN) down $0.68.
Elsewhere, Sigmatel (SGTL) up $1.15. The company will be acquired by Freescale Semiconductor for $3 a share.
But Coldwater Creek (CWTR) plunging $1.27. The company's in the casual apparel retail business and the Thomas Weisel brokerage downgraded it from "market weight" to "under weight."
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
