Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Sellers took the upper hand on Wall Street early today as that surge in oil and guarded outlooks on earnings from Texas Instruments and Dupont undermined stock prices. In a steady decline, the Dow fell to a 160 point loss by 1 p.m. with the NASDAQ Composite off 38 points. A huge loss by United Airlines sent its stock and the air sector tumbling. But the blue chips found some buying support late in the afternoon which helped narrow the market's closing losses. The Dow Industrial Average still ended down 104.79 points at 12,720.23. The NASDAQ lost 31.10 to 2376.94. Standard & Poor's 500 fell 12.23 points, ending at 1375.94. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 8/32 to 98 12/32, putting the yield at 3.70 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 28.6 million shares, CIT Group (CIT) losing $2, almost $2 a share, big percentage drop. The company's in the midst of an offering of $1 billion of common stock, namely 91 million shares priced at $11 and $500 million in preferred stock, namely 10 million shares priced at $50, a little earnings dilution there. National City (NCC) edging up $0.23 after dropping $2.30 yesterday on a big first quarter loss, but today Deutsche Bank upgraded it from "sell to a "buy."
Pfizer (PFE) in there with a $0.41 loss.
Then a hot new issue, Intrepid Potash (IPI), this is a fertilize (sic) producer and it went public today, 30 million shares offered at $32. It opened at $46.25, got as high as $51.19, backed off a little but still 57 1/2 percent gain on the first day of trading.
Citigroup (C) number five in volume was a $0.09 gainer.
And then moving along in the active list, Ford Motor Co (F) an $0.08 drop.
$0.13 loss in General Electric (GE).
SprintNextel (S) $0.35 gain.
Bank of America (BAC) a $0.61.
And Co vale do Rio (RIO) a $0.32 gain, tenth in volume.
AT&T (T) edged up $0.22. First quarter earnings were up 22 percent, $0.57 versus $0.45 a year ago.
Dupont (DD) didn't fare so well, down $2.09, although its first quarter earnings were up 26 percent, $1.31 versus $1.01 last year and $0.03 above the Street estimate, but the company had a cautious outlook and that's what hurt the stock apparently.
McDonald's (MCD) another Dow stock, down $0.32 despite higher first quarter earnings, $0.81 versus $0.62 last year, $0.11 above the Street estimate, but its U.S. same store sales were down (INAUDIBLE) in March. Investor didn't like that.
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) losing $3.66. Higher first quarter earnings, $0.78 versus $0.66 a year ago, but $0.02 below the Street estimate and the company cut its full year guidance by 10 percent. The whole health sector was down on that news.
We see Aetna (AET), Cigna (CI), Wellpoint (WLP) all substantial on the downside.
Medco Health Solutions (MHS) however, up $2.69. The company received an extension from United Health Group to provide pharmacy benefit services through the year 2012 and Citigroup upgraded Medco to a "buy" recommendation.
DST Systems (DST), this is a financial services company, plunging $10.33. First quarter earnings, $0.86, that was just a penny below last year's earnings, but $0.06 below the Street estimate and Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock from "buy" to just a "neutral" rating.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, losing nearly $8. American Technology Research downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral" and second quarter earnings are due out tomorrow I believe.
Google (GOOG) up $17.21, doing well.
Research in Motion (RIMM) a $4.87 loss.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.17.
Baidu.com (BIDU) dropped $7.41.
First Solar (FSLR) up $6.18.
Intel (INTC) $0.47 drop.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) edged up $0.03.
And there you see Yahoo! (YHOO) closing down a penny. As you heard, earnings were $0.02 above Street estimate, but after hours trading I saw the stock dropped to $28.32.
Then tenth in NASDAQ volume, Qualcomm (QCOM) with a loss of $1.07.
UAL Corp (UAUA), the big casualty of the day, losing almost 37 percent of its value with that loss of $7.88. The company reported a first quarter loss humongous, $4.45 a share in the red. The Street was looking for a loss of only $3.41 and the company said its fuel expense rose $618 million in that period over a year ago. Let's see how some of the airlines fared on that news and no surprise to see them all down and down substantially percentage wise.
Dryships (DRYS) finally surged $8.38 on news the company has acquired a controlling stake in Norway-based Ocean Rig ASA for $300 million and will launch a tender offer for the rest of the company in the weeks ahead.
