Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, February 14, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: After three straight days of gains, stocks on Wall Street opened lower on profit-taking pressures. The sell off continued on Fed Chairman Bernanke's comment that the economic outlook has worsened. By noon, the Dow had fallen 113 points, with the NASDAQ off 28 points. More talk of a slowing economy kept the market on the defensive throughout the rest of the day, so most stocks ended at the session's lowest levels. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 175.26 points at 12,376.98, losing just about what it gained yesterday. The NASDAQ fell 41.39 points to 2,332.54. Standard & Poor's 500 lost 18.35, exactly what it gained yesterday and now stands at 1,348.86. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 22/32 to 97 11/32, putting the yield at 3.82 percent.
Once again at the top of the active list, Citigroup (C) trading 21.6 million shares today, down $0.60. After the close, it was disclosed in an SEC filing that billionaire investor Eddie Lampert (ph) slashed his hedge fund's stake in Citigroup by almost one third, from 23 3/4 million shares down to 19.1 million shares of the last part of last year. General Electric (GE) $0.59 loss.
EMC Corp (EMC) bucking the trend was a $0.28 gain.
Pfizer (PFE) down $0.29.
And then Bank of America (BAC) in the weak financial group today, off $1.09.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) off $1.49.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) fell $0.79.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) $0.88 drop.
Wachovia (WB) off $1.39.
And then AT&T (T), tenth in volume, an $0.83 loss there.
Bear Stearns (BSC) dropping $2.06. Citic Securities of China wants to renegotiate its $1 billion investment in BSC because Bear's stock has fallen. Citic is now seeking a 9.9 percent stake in Bear Stearns for its $1 billion investment and that's off from the original 6 percent.
Goodyear Tire (GT), well let's recap what happened there today, the stock up $1.87. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.27 versus a loss of $1.74 last year. Some of the company's top line tires have very good sales.
And then Cabot Oil & Gas (COG) up $2.55, nicely higher fourth quarter earnings, $0.43, up from $0.33 last year.
Avis Budget (CAR) up $1.18. Fourth quarter earnings came in at $0.27 a share. That was $0.09 better than the Street was expecting. That does include or exclude one-time items.
Liz Claiborne (LIZ) dropped $4.12. The company sees fourth quarter loss at $0.90 to $1 versus earnings of $0.71 a year ago. Standard & Poor's downgraded Liz stock today from "buy" to just a "hold."
And then Thomson (TWS) off $1.92. This is a French media services firm. 2007 earnings $0.90 a share, well down from the Wall Street estimate of $1.25.
Build a Bear Workshop (BBW) $2.66 loss. Fourth quarter earnings dropped to only $0.48 from $0.75 a year ago. That was $0.18 below the Street estimate.
And Dreamworks Animation (DWA) off $1.52. BMO Capital downgraded it from "out perform" to "market perform."
And New Orient Education (FDU) up $4.75. The company's board of governors has approved the buyback of up to one million American depository shares.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) closed down $1.05. After the close it came in with higher fourth quarter earnings, $0.53 versus $0.33 a year ago, but that was $0.02 below the Street estimate and the company says 2008 will be challenging. In after hours trading, the stock was down as low as $94 a share from this price.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, losing $1.94.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $3.41. It hit a high of $280 today on the company's strong fourth quarter earnings, $0.17 above the Street estimate.
Google (GOOG) down $2.37.
First Solar (FSLR) down $4.35. Yesterday that stock was up almost $53 a share. That was a net change and fourth quarter earnings were very strong.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.46 loss there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $1.22.
Intel (INTC) $0.75 loss. Goldman Sachs removed Intel from its "buy" list today.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.53 loss.
And Nvidia (NVDA) off $4.41. After the close yesterday, it had higher earnings, $0.42 versus $0.27 but Standard & Poor's today cut its 2008 earnings estimate and so did BMO Capital.
Then Yahoo! (YHOO) up a dime, was tenth in volume.
Comcast "A" (CMCSA) up $1.43. Fourth quarter earnings in at $0.20, up from $0.15 a year. The company plans to resume an annual cash dividend of $0.25 a share and also hopes to complete its $7 billion stock buyback by next year. Those are the stocks in the news.
