Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: On Wall Street stocks opened modestly higher on carryover momentum from yesterday's massive rally. At the outset of trading, the Dow rose 20 points, while the NASDAQ was a fraction lower. Continued enthusiasm over the Fed's move to ease the credit crunch lifted the Dow to a 140 point gain late in the morning. But surging oil futures and brokerage downgrades on the airline industry and U.S. refining stocks blunted the rally and that turned the market moderately lower by the closing bell. The Dow Industrial Average ended down 46.57 points at 12,110.24. The NASDAQ Composite fell 11.89 ending at 2243.87. Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 11.88 to 1308.77. In the bond market, the 10-year note climbed 1 1/32 to par and 7/32, putting the yield at 3.48 percent.
Big board volume leader, Citigroup (C) today on 30.3 million shares, stock down $0.28.
General Electric (GE) up $0.56, traded as high as $34.46. The company's chief exec said 2008 revenues and earnings for GE should grow by at least 10 percent and he said the company is well suited for the challenging environment.
SprintNextel (S) edged up a nickel.
Wachovia (WS) down $1.73. Credit Suisse brokerage cut its price target from $30 to $23 a share and cut first quarter earnings estimates from $0.68 down to $0.40 a share.
Pfizer (PFE), fifth in volume, was a $0.44 loser.
Ford (F) down $0.20.
Bank of America (BAC) lost $0.69.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) $0.23 loss there.
Wells Fargo (WFC) off $1.28.
And a major casualty, Humana (HUM) down $6.50 after the company cut its first quarter guidance and earnings from as much as $0.85 all the way down to $0.46 a share at best. Caterpillar (CAT) up $2.64. The company sees 2008 sales and earnings up 5 to 15 percent and also forecast up to 2012, very good forecast. Target (TGT) closed $0.49 lower. After the close, the company said it's in talks to sell about half of its credit card receivables for about $4 billion. In after hours trading, the stock was up around $52 a share.
The airline stocks particularly weak today after JPMorgan downgraded the sector from "over weight to "under weight." I think high prices had something to do with that.
Alaska Air Group (ALK), AMR (AMR), Continental Air (CAL, Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Northwest Airlines (NWA) major casualties in that airline group.
And another group affected by high oil prices, the oil refineries in the nation. The Caris and Company brokerage downgraded the U.S. refining stocks from "over" to "below average" and as you can see, Frontier Oil (FTO), Holly (HOC), Sunoco (SUN), Tesoro (TSO) and Valero Energy (VLO) all casualties. Now here's one that did very well, Boston Beer (SAM), this one hopped up $9.29. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.46, up from $0.17 last year. Revenues up 26 percent. And then Ocwen Financial (OCN) down $1.09. The company has terminated its plan to go private at $7 a share. And on the plus side was Thornburg Mortgage (TMA) up $1.29. Standard & Poor's upgraded it from "sell" to "hold." Bear Stearns upgraded it from "under perform" to "peer perform."
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, down $1.32.
Google (GOOG) $0.34 gain.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $13.25.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.65.
While Research in Motion (RIMM) gained $0.65.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a penny loss.
And then First Solar (FSLR) up $7.77.
Intel (INTC) an $0.08 drop.
Oracle (ORCL) up $0.17.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.33 gain on that stock.
And KLA Tencor (KLAC) dropped $4.13. Oppenheimer brokerage downgraded it from "peer perform" to "under perform."
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
