Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, February 29, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened sharply lower in the wake of Dell's disappointing results we told you about last night and also on AIG's huge loss reported early today. After an hour of trading, the Dow was down a hefty 213 points and the NASDAQ off 44. The sell-off steepened as recession worries were revived by a drop in Midwest manufacturing activity. A cut in earnings for several investment banks by UBS also added to the selling. The Dow plunged to a closing loss of 315.79 points at 12,266.39. This week, the index rose three times, fell twice, had a net loss of 114.63 points. The NASDAQ Composite tumbled 60.09 points to 2,271.48 today and like the Dow, it too endured a rout of selling yesterday and today. For the week, it was down 31.87 points. Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 37.05 today, ending at 1,330.63, the broadly based index down in three in of the last five sessions for a loss of 22.48 points on the week. In the bond market today, the 10-year note rose 24/32 to 99 27/32, putting the yield down to 3.52 percent.
Big board volume leader once again, Citigroup (C) on 34 1/2 million shares, down $1.30 in a very weak banking group. UBS had downgraded earnings reports on many of them.
SprintNextel (S) down another $0.98 after losing $0.86 yesterday when it reported a fourth quarter loss of a whopping $10.36 a share. Today, RBC Capital, Citigroup and Credit Suisse all lowered their price targets on Sprint stock.
General Electric (GE) $0.71 drop there.
Pfizer (PFE) off $0.27.
AT&T (T) fell $1.13.
And then Bank of America (BAC) in that weak group, down $1.68.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) lost $1.79.
Motorola (MOT) dropping $0.43.
American Intl Group (AIG) down $3.29. Fourth quarter, the company lost $5.3 billion which is equal to $2.08 a share. It was due to huge credit derivative losses. Standard & Poor's today repeated a "sell" and of course, AIG undermined the financial sector to a great extent.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) off $1.33, was number 10 in big board volume.
Then General Motors (GM) off $1.22. The company may have to idle three plants due to the ongoing strike at a major supplier, namely American Axle.
Let's have a look at some of the other big Dow stocks that were hard hit today, all more than 2 points losses in ExxonMobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), American Express (AXP), Caterpillar (CAT) and Boeing (BA).
RH Donnelley (RHD) which publishes the Yellow Pages, off another $2.25 after tumbling nearly $8.50 yesterday on a fourth quarter loss of $0.17 a share. Today Bear Stearns downgraded the stock from "out perform" to just "peer perform."
And then Gap (GPS) bucked the trend with a $0.72 gain. After the close yesterday, fourth quarter earnings came out at $0.35, up from $0.27 a year ago and today the company said it's going to boost its annual dividend from $0.32 to $0.34 a share and buy back up to $1 billion of its own stock.
Universal Health Services (UHS) up $2.37. The company owns acute hospitals. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.75, up from $0.63 last year and a 12 percent jump in revenues.
Then came Commscope (CTV) up $3.43. The company makes fiber optic cable products. Fourth quarter earnings jumped to $0.51 from $0.38 a year ago. Revenues up 17 percent.
FTI Consulting (FCN) had a good day, up $7.62. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.60, well above $0.42 a year ago. Revenues up 29 percent. The company's expanding its Asian and European operations.
Armstrong World (AWI) up $2.87. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.37, way up from $0.06 last year and the company set a special cash dividend of $4.50 a share.
On the downside, AbitibiBowater (ABH), the forest products company, down $4.28. Yesterday the company posted a fourth quarter loss of $5.09 a share. Today, Raymond James financial brokerage cut its price target from $14 to $12 and it's already well below that.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, down $4.89.
Google (GOOG) off $4.21.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.73 drop.
Baidu.com (BIDU) fell $1.67.
Research in Motion (RIMM) losing $5.25.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.27.
$0.97 advance or drop in Dell Inc (DELL). Dell had yesterday of course reported a fourth quarter earnings of $0.31. That was a nickel below the Street estimate.
Intel (INTC) $0.52 drop.
And Gilead Sciences (GILD), the only one in the actives to buck the trend, up $1.86.
And First Solar (FSLR) down $0.11.
Elsewhere, Momenta Pharmaceuticals (MNTA) up $2.26 on hopes a generic blood thinner may soon get an FDA approval and today Bear Stearns upgraded it from "under perform" to "out perform."
And then lastly, Limelight Network (LLNW) down $1.69, lost 26 percent of its value. The company itself lost a patent case and must pay $45.5 million in damages for infringement.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
