Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street was on the defensive early today amid profit taking after three straight sessions of gains. A new low of the dollar against the euro and gold at record highs added to the selling. An hour into trading the Dow posted a 41-point loss and the NASDAQ was down nine points. Then came word that portfolio caps would be lifted from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that rallied the blue chips to a 65-point gain at noon. We'll have more on Fannie and Freddie in just a moment. But investors then turned their attention to the Fed chairman's gloomy tone and bad news, like a 13-year low in January new home sales. All this resulted in a mixed market close. The Dow Industrial Average (INAUDIBLE) a gain of only 9.36 at 12,694.28. The NASDAQ Composite rose 8.79 to 2353.78, but the Standard & Poor's 500 lost 1.27 at 1380.02. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 1/32 to 97 3/32, putting the yield at 3.85 percent.
Once again, big board volume leader today on 26 million shares, Citigroup (C) moving up $0.77.
Fannie Mae (FNM) closed up only $0.30. First of all this morning, the company reported a worse than expected fourth quarter loss of $3.80 a share versus earnings last year. But then the government looked at its portfolio growth cap and the stock got as high as $31.58 during the day, then backed off considerably.
Then came JPMorgan Chase (JPM), $0.69 gain.
Freddie Mac (FRE) down $0.12 on the close, but on the news of the lifting the portfolio growth cap, it was as high as $29.40 and gave back all of that.
General Electric (GE) an $0.08 gainer. That was number five in big board volume.
Ford Motor Co (F) edged up $0.08.
Followed by AT&T (T). AT&T is backing its 2008 revenue outlook incidentally.
Then Bank of America (BAC) a $0.16 gain.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) up $0.34.
While SprintNextel (S) dropped $0.34.
IBM (IBM) up another $2.08 after gaining over $4 yesterday on the company's plan to buy back $15 billion of its own stock. But today the company's CFO said first quarter results look stronger in the U.S. than previously thought. That's what helped the stock on this follow through day.
Delta Air Lines (DAL) lost $0.91. The company's chief exec sent a memo to employees saying that in essence, no merger agreement with Northwest Air has been reached as yet.
Let's have a look at Northwest Airlines (NWA) and it too was down $0.91. Both stocks are almost identical in price and net change today they were.
Nortel Networks (NT) down $1.52. The company reported a fourth quarter loss of $1.70 a share versus only a $0.19 drop a year ago. Revenues fell 4 percent in the fourth quarter and the company plans on cutting its global workforce by 2100. RBC Capital brokerage downgraded the stock from "sector perform" to "under perform."
Carters (CRI) which retails baby's clothing and notice the interesting symbols. CRI, cry. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.48 up from $0.45 last year but that was $0.03 below the Street estimate and the company did note weakness in its wholesale operations. Standard & Poor's downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold" rating.
URS (URS) an engineering firm, tumbling $8.88. Fourth quarter earnings were higher, $0.55 versus $0.51 last year, but the company said this year's results will be tempered by weakness in the infrastructure market.
Dycom Industries (DY) losing $2.27. It fell to a second quarter loss of $0.08 versus earnings of $0.14 last year and that's despite a 10 percent rise in revenues.
Finally a good gainer, Federal Signal (FSS) up $1.50. Fourth quarter earnings were lower, $0.17 versus last year's $0.27, but $0.03 better than expected and the company's evaluating options on its E1 fire rescue unit.
Dreamworks Animation (DWA) up $1.21. Fourth quarter earnings of $0.98 versus a loss of $0.20 last year. Revenues shot up 40 percent.
And then Zale Corp (ZLC), the jewelry chain, up $1.88. The company plans to close 105 stores and cut 225 jobs in a plan to save $65 million annually.
Apple (APPL) topped NASDAQ's most active list, up $3.81.
Followed by Google (GOOG) with a gain of $8.67.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $21.05.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $3.75.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.12 loss. The European Commission has fined the company a record $1.35 billion for failure to comply with an antitrust decision.
Let's move along here, Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.88.
Intel (INTC) an $0.08 rise.
Bea Systems (BEAS) rose $0.26.
Autodesk (ADSK) losing $6.11. After the close yesterday, fourth quarter earnings were higher, $0.52 versus $0.46 but the company cut its first quarter guidance from $0.52 down to $0.48 a share at best.
Then First Solar (FSLR), tenth in volume, lost $3.
And finally, First Independence Financial (FIFG) jumped $5.21 on news it is being acquired by MainSource Financial Group for cash and stock worth $18.34 per share.
