Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Those better than expected results from Morgan Stanley and word that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be allowed to buy more home loans, helped Wall Street to some early gains. The Dow was up 44 points and the NASDAQ up 2 in the first hour of trading. But investors weren't impressed with that rally and stocks soon turned lower. Fear that the slowing economy would cut demand for commodities triggered heavy selling in that oil and gold sectors which led the market to a broadly lower close. The Dow Industrial Average ended down 293 points exactly at 12,099.66. The NASDAQ Composite plunged 58.30 ending at 2209.96. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 32.32 at 1298.42. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 1 14/32 to 101 14/32, putting the yield at 3.33 percent.
By far the most active big board issue on 88.8 million shares was the new issue, Visa (V) up $12.50 on the close. The IPO was priced at $44 late yesterday and it opened at $59.50. The high of the day, $60.60, backed off a little, but still a very strong debut. Citigroup (C) was down $0.30.
General Electric (GE) lost $0.55.
Ford Motor (F) a $0.16 gainer.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) on those better than expected earnings, down $0.24, not bad.
Bank of America (BAC) off $0.37.
Pfizer (PFE) fell $0.39.
There you see Fannie Mae (FNM) up $2.49. As we heard, Fed regulators have eased capital requirements allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to pump up some $200 billion into the mortgage market to help struggling homeowners.
Then came Merrill Lynch (MER) down $5.18. The brokerage has filed suit against XL (ph) Capital insurance to honor binding contracts covering $3 billion in credit default (INAUDIBLE) insuring collateralized debt obligations, those CDOs we hear about.
Wachovia (WS), tenth in big board volume, was up $0.30 a share.
Merck (MRK) down $0.20. It traded as high as $44 this morning after the FDA granted priority review of the company's cervical cancer vaccine called Gardasil and that's for expanded use. It's already on the market.
Nokia (NOK) had a bad day, down $3.41. The stock weak on fears of a cell phone industry slowdown and increased competition, especially from Apple.
Then we see Monsanto (MON) plunging $13.21. France's top legal authority upheld a ban on the company's genetically modified corn seed.
Then Lindsay Corp (LNN) had a great day, up $13.73. Second quarter earnings, $0.79, way above the $0.47 Street estimate and up from $0.21 last year. Revenues shot up 70 percent and the company sees U.S. demand for its irrigation products remaining very strong.
MF Global Ltd. (MF) up $1.19. The company said repeated rumors it's having liquidity problems are completely without merit.
Darden Restaurants (DR) up $1.97. Third quarter earnings, $0.80, up from $0.79 last year, revenues up 25 percent. Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy" recommendation.
Centene Corp. (CNC) down $3.97. The managed care company says it has to make up $0.03 to $0.04 per share to meet the low end of its previous guidance which was $0.59 a share.
And then Amerigroup (AGP) down $5.27. The company cut its 2008 earnings guidance from a high of $2.73, all the way down to $2.61 at best.
And then AAR Corp. (AIR), an aviation products company, traded as high as $27.35 today after reporting third quarter earnings of $0.47, up from $0.36 last year and revenues jumped 39 percent.
Topping the active list on NASDAQ, Apple (AAPL) down $3.15.
Followed by Google (GOOG) down $7.16.
Microsoft (MSFT) dropped $0.80.
Then Research in Motion (RIMM) off $3.88.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $1.11 a share.
Intel (INTC) $0.66 drop.
Baidu.com (BIDU) fell $26.32.
Qualcomm inc. (QCOM) $2.28 loss there.
But Adobe Systems (ADBE) bucking the trend, up $2.87. First quarter earnings came in at $0.48, way above $0.30 a year ago, $0.03 better than the Street consensus. The company sees 2008 revenues rising 13 percent.
Oracle (ORCL), tenth in NASDAQ volume, was down $0.46.
Capital Corp. of the West (CCOW) plunging $6.90. The company has delayed filing its 2007 annual report and predicted a fourth quarter loss of $15 million on higher loan loss provisions.
And finally, shares in La Barge (LB) jumped $2.45 on an upbeat forecast. The company sees third quarter earnings at $0.23 to $0.24 per share up from second quarter earnings of $0.21.
