Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, March 03, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street extended last Friday's plunge in the early going today. Pressuring stocks, the drop in the dollar and the downturn in many foreign markets, especially Japan where the Nikkei index posted a 4.5 percent decline. Just before noon, the Dow posted a 63-point loss and the NASDAQ was off 11 points. Stocks improved in a stair-step pattern after a steep 1.7 percent decline in January construction spending was overshadowed by a smaller than expected drop in the ISM manufacturing index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average cut its closing loss to just 7.49 at 12,258.90. The NASDAQ Composite was down 12.88 at 2258.60. Standard & Poor's 500 Index managed to gain a fraction, .71 at 1331.34. In the bond market, the 10-year note lost 10/32 to 99 18/32, putting the yield at 3.55 percent.
Big board volume leader as it so often is, Citigroup (C) 29.1 million shares traded, down $0.62.
Then SprintNextel (S) down $0.13.
Bank of America (BAC) off $0.56. Bank of America securities cut first quarter earnings estimates on four of the big investment banks. Let's see how they fared under those conditions.
Bear Stearns (BSC), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Lehman Brothers (LEH), substantial losses.
Morgan Stanley (MS) held up pretty well with just a $0.54 loss.
Thornburg Mortgage (TMA) major loser, down $4.51, that's 51 1/2 percent loss of value today. The company says it has another $270 million in margin calls, creating a liquidity problem and raising concerns the jumbo mortgage lender might have to file for bankruptcy.
Washington Mutual (WM) in that weak financial sector, down $1.15.
Ford Motor Co (F) $0.35 drop on that sales decline last month.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) $0.83 loss there.
General Electric (GE) bucked the trend with a $0.26 gain.
Pfizer (PFE) a $0.03 loss.
And then Motorola (MOT) down $0.16.
Boeing (BA) stock down $2.12, disappointment over the Pentagon's decision to award Northrop Grumman and EADS, the big French firm, that huge $40 billion aerial tanker contract for the U.S. States Air Force. Northrop stock was up $3.96 incidentally.
Moving along, big movers, Diebold (DBD) $14.72 gain. As you heard, United Technologies made a $40 a share take over bid which Diebold says is inadequate and rejected it. United Tech stock was down $1.11 at $69.40.
HSBC Holdings (HBC), that's the big bank, 2007 net income up 21 percent. The company boosting its annual dividend 11 percent to $0.90 a share.
AMBAC Financial (ABK) down $1.20. The company's cutting its quarterly dividend from $0.07 all the way down to a penny a share and suspending all new structured finance operations for the next six months.
Very troubled financial sector, here we see Deerfield Capital (DFR) losing half of its value, down $3.25. The company reported a fourth quarter loss of $2.14 versus earnings last year. Revenues fell just over 1 percent.
And yet another weak financial, Irwin Financial (IFC) down $1.02. The board voted to suspend its quarterly dividend of $0.12.
Let's have a gainer here. There we have one. Supervalu (SVU) up $1.84. Standard & Poor's upgraded it from "hold" to a "buy."
In other trading, we see Genesco (GOO), the footwear maker, down $5.18. The company said it will accept $175 million in Finish Line stock, after finish Line Corp. failed to complete a buyout at $54.50 a share and Finish Line stock was up $1.14 at $3.97.
Orbital Sciences (ORB) up $1.20. It's going to be added to the Standard & Poor's small cap 600 index after the close Thursday, replacing Respironics, which is being acquired.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, down $3.29.
Google (GOOG) was hit for over $14 loss.
Research in Motion (RIMM) off $3.65.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.21.
And Baidu.com (BIDU down $10.81.
Intel (INTC) bucked the trend, up $0.04.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) gained a penny.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $1.27. It lost a patent lawsuit to its arch rival Nokia over in the United Kingdom.
Amazon.com (AMZN) down $2.04.
And then Oracle (ORCL) bucking the trend with a $0.15 gain.
Sten (STEN), which makes medical products, huge percentage gain, up $1.73. The company very upbeat on its forecast of second quarter revenues, says they'll double to $4.2 million.
And then on the downside we have a big loser in Stereotaxis (STXS) losing $1.77. Fourth quarter loss worse than expected, $0.34 in the red. The Street estimate was for only a $0.31 loss. And Johnson & Johnson has delayed marketing the company's catheter.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
