Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: The continuing flow of bad news from the banking sector and last night's warning from Intel about lower memory chip prices had Wall Street moving lower from the opening. At noon, the Dow posted a 180-point loss. The NASDAQ was off 30 points. Some pessimistic comments about the economic outlook from several Fed officials sent the Dow down over 220 points in early afternoon. But then a sharp drop in oil futures ahead of tomorrow's OPEC meeting and bullish comments from Cisco Systems CEO triggered a late rally. The Dow Industrial Average went on to close down only 45.10 points at 12,213.80. The NASDAQ Composite actually gained 1.68 to close at 2,260.28. Standard & Poor's 500 fell 4.59 to 1,326.75. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 19/32 to 98 31/32, putting the yield at 3.62 percent.
Big board volume leader, no surprise, 50.4 million shares traded, Citigroup (C) down $0.99 on the close, traded as low as $21.23. As you heard, more capital might be needed according to the CEO of Dubai International Capital, who incidentally doesn't own any stock. Also Merrill Lynch cut first quarter earnings on Citi from plus $0.55 to a loss of $1.66. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in there with a $0.63 loss.
General Electric (GE) up $0.12.
Bank of America (BAC) down $0.40. Merrill Lynch repeated a "neutral" rating on that one.
Motorola (MOT) was up $0.12 a share.
And then Wachovia (WB) losing $0.93. Merrill Lynch cut earnings estimates there and repeated a "sell" recommendation, also said Wachovia may cut its dividend in the second half of the year.
SprintNextel (S) down a dime.
A penny loss in Pfizer (PFE). The "Wall Street Journal" reports the U.S. Supreme Court will allow a product liability lawsuit to proceed against Pfizer regarding its diabetes drug Resilin (ph).
Then we see Washington Mutual (WM)
down $0.26.
And tenth in volume was Ford Motor Co (F) dropping a nickel a share.
American Intl Group (AIG) down $0.86. Moody's maintained its negative outlook on that company.
Boeing Co (BA) down $1.05, continuing disappointment that Northrop Grumman and not the company, got the $35 billion U.S. Air Force aerial tanker contract and apparently the company has submitted a request to the Pentagon asking why it wasn't selected for that huge contract.
Best Buy Co (BBY) down just $0.68. Bank America downgraded it from "buy" to a "neutral."
Barr Pharmaceuticals (BRL) up $3.80. The company's Barr Labs unit won a patent dispute which found Bayor birth control pill invalid. The patent was invalid and that clears the way for Barr to market a generic version of that.
Trina Solar (TSL) up $1.75, big earnings jump, fourth quarter, $0.62 up from $0.28 a year ago, $0.13 above the Wall Street estimate.
And then Jackson Hewitt Tax Service (JTX) off $6.61, third quarter earnings dropped to $0.61 from $0.83 last year. The Street was looking for $0.99. Revenues actually dropped 15 percent.
Barnes & Noble (BKS), the book seller, down $1.38. The company sees fiscal 2009 earnings at $1.70 to $1.90. The Street estimate is way up there at $2.12 a share.
NCI Building Systems (NCS) tumbling $5.70. First quarter earnings down to $0.39 from $0.49 a year ago and the company cut its 2008 earnings estimate from $0.90 to $1.05, all the way down to $0.64 to $0.79.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) up $2.89. As you heard, the annual meeting produced no stock buyback or dividend, but plenty of optimism and of course, the company has cash, around $18 billion.
Google (GOOG) down $12.42.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $4.51.
Intel (INTC) a $0.01 loss. Company as you heard cut its margin estimates from 56 percent to about 54 percent due to those weak memory chip prices.
And Microsoft (MSFT) was up $0.60.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) an $0.11 drop.
Followed by Baidu.com (BIDU) up $5.63.
Oracle (ORCL) lost $0.51.
Applied Materials (AMAT) up $1.44. The company got a $2 billion order for its products from a private firm that it wouldn't name, at least up to this point.
Amazon.com (AMZN) was up $2.91.
Tessera Technologies (TSRA) tumbling nearly $9 a share. The U.S. patent and trade office has rejected the company's patent claims on its semiconductor technology.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
