Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, March 17, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street was taken aback by the Fed's Herculean effort to stem the Bear Stearns crisis, suggesting it was a lot more serious than first thought. The result was a sharp opening sell off which sent the Dow tumbling 155 points at the outset of trading while the NASDAQ Index lost 34 points. Bargain hunting brought the blue chips back to Friday's closing levels by mid-day. Then another wave of selling sent them to the early lows in mid-afternoon, followed by a late rally which resulted in a mixed close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended with a gain of 21.16 at 11,972.25. The NASDAQ closed down 35.48 at 2177.01, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 11.54 ending at 1276.60. In the bond market, the 10- year note rose 1 12/32 to 101 20/32, putting the yield at 3.31 percent.
Big board volume leader on 44.4 million shares, Citigroup (C) down $1.19 in that basically weak group again. Then Lehman Brothers (LEH) down $7.51, but believe it or not, it traded as low as $20.55 this morning. UBS downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral" and there is speculation that Lehman could be the next in need of a Bear Stearns type bail out which the company strongly denies.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM), one of the good gainers in the Dow Industrial Average, up $3.77. Some analysts believe that the Bear Stearns takeover could turn out to be a real bargain as we've heard. Also the company is the lead underwriter in Wednesday's Visa initial public offering, which is likely to be a great cash generator for the underwriting team.
General Electric (GE) moved up $0.51.
And then Bear Stearns (BSC) itself closing at $4.81 with that $26.04 loss. It traded as low as $2.84 during the day, came back a bit.
Washington Mutual (WM) down $1.33.
Bank of America (BAC) managed to gain $0.27.
Ford Motor (F) an $0.18 loss.
Merrill Lynch (MER) down $2.33.
And then Wachovia (WS), tenth in volume, losing $0.88 a share.
MF Global Limited (MF) plunging $11.25. There were early reports that some of its clients were taking money out of the firm, but the company said no, that's not happening. It has ample funds.
Elsewhere we had another big loser in National City (NCC) down $5.63. Standard & Poor's linked the weakness to JPMorgan's acquisition of Bear Stearns which reduces the possibility of a National City takeover.
CSX Corp. (CSX), the big rail company, up $2.31. It sees first quarter earnings up 42 to 48 percent from last year. It's boosting its quarterly dividend 20 percent and it'll buy back up to $3 billion of its own stock by the end of next year.
Intl Paper (IP) down $2.79. It will acquire Weyerhauser's container board, packaging and recycling business for $6 billion. Weyerhauser stock was up $1.09 at $63.06.
Conoco Phillips (COP) down $1.61, even though Goldman Sachs upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy" but it cut its price target from $100 down to $96 a share.
The big European firm, Siemens Ag (SI) losing $19.44. The company says that its current quarterly earnings will be cut by 900 million euros due to order delays.
Shareholders of Tempur-Pedic (TPX) probably won't sleep too well tonight, down $6.36. The company sees first quarter sales in a high single digit decline from a year ago.
National Financial Partners (NFP) down $5.39. A "Barron's" article this week says despite the chart drop from a high of $57 a share, the stock is still vulnerable to further weakness.
Conseco (CNO) off $1.30. The company says preliminary fourth quarter results will show a loss of $0.39 a share.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, up $0.12.
Google (GOOG) however down $18.05.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.34 gain.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $3.57.
Baidu.com (BIDU) down almost $21 a share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.03 loss there.
$0.19 gain in Intel (INTC).
Yahoo! (YHOO) $0.86 loss.
First Solar (FSLR) down $6.94.
And then Oracle (ORCL) with a $0.24 loss.
Bladelogic (BLOG) moving up $3.78. BMC Software will acquire the firm for $28 a share in cash.
And over on the American Exchange, I-trax (DMX) up $1.29. Walgreens will acquire this company for $5.40 a share.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
