Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: While those Fed minutes guiding trading in the back half of the day, Wall Street's open was all about surging oil prices. Airline stocks led the way lower pulling the Dow to an 88-point loss by 11:00 a.m. while the NASDAQ was off just five points. A fresh wave of heavy selling was set off by the release of those Fed minutes at 2:00 p.m. as investors mulled over word that inflation and unemployment would like rise and rate cuts are likely over. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 227.49 points to close at 12,601.19. The NASDAQ was down 43.99 to 2448.27. Standard & Poor's 500 Index tumbled 22.69 points ending at 1390.71. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 9/32 to par and 17/32, putting the yield up to 3.81 percent.
Big board volume leader on 27.4 million shares, Citigroup (C) losing $1.05 in that weak financial group.
And then General Electric (GE) off $0.73. The company said it's gotten many inquiries from foreign potential buyers for its appliances unit, but it said it's also seriously considering a spin off of that unit.
Pfizer (PFE) lost $0.04.
And there you see AMR (AMR) dropping $1.98 as you heard, cutting back on its domestic operations and on top of that, Soleil Securities and Lehman Brothers brokerages cut target prices on a host of airline stocks and downgraded a host of them. Let's have a look at some of the damage here.
Continental Air (CAL), Delta Air (DAL), Northwest Air (NWA), UAL Corp (UAUA) and US Airways (LCC) all significant losses on the day.
And then we see Bank of America (BAC) losing $0.76 in the weak financial sector.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) a weak financial, off $1.28.
ExxonMobil (XOM) lost $0.89, despite the higher oil prices.
Ford Motor Co (F) a $0.20 drop.
And then Time Warner (TWX) with a $0.09 gain. The company plans to spin off its cable division, which in the fourth quarter will pay a special $10.27 per share dividend.
Rounding out the active list, Wells Fargo (WFC) with a $0.35 loss.
The housing stocks, particularly hard hit today because the Fed's latest minutes suggested they'll be no more rate cuts or at least they won't be likely. Centex (CTX), Lennar (LEN), KB Home (KBH), MDC Holdings (MDC), Ryland Group (RYL) all major losses on that sector of the market.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) dropped $1.66. After the close yesterday, as we reported, second quarter earnings were high, $0.87 versus $0.70 last year, better than expected but today, Bank of America cut the price target on HP stock from $57 down to $53 a share.
SLM Corp (SLM) that's Sallie Mae, down $1 or up $1.22. The Bush administration said it's planning to pump liquidity into the shaky student loan market and that helped that stock.
National Fuel Gas Co (NFG) up $3.19. Standard & Poor's boosted its earnings estimate, repeated a "buy." UBS financial upgraded it from "neutral" to a "buy."
And then Lehman Brothers (LEH) down $2.44. Credit Suisse predicts the company will have a second quarter loss of $0.60 a share.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $7.71.
And then Google (GOOG) tumbling $28.61. Microsoft hopes to gain on Google through a new service on the Internet called live search cash back which pays consumers who buy items they find through Microsoft's search service.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $5.71.
Baidu.com (BIDU) tumbled $17.14.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.51 loss itself.
Intel (INTC) fell $0.43, although the company said its microchip packaging plant in Chengdu, China returned to full production today after a shutdown after the recent powerful May 12th earthquake. No shipments were missed from the factory.
Then we see First Solar (FSLR) tumbling over $19. The Friedman Billings brokerage downgraded it from "market perform" to "under perform."
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.48 drop there.
And Yahoo! (YHOO) $0.15 loss.
Qualcomm (QCOM) a $0.12 gain.
And then over on the American exchange, finally we see Mexco Energy (MXC) soaring $5.97 on news the oil and gas company has completed a very promising well in Loving County, Texas. The stock began trading this month at a price of $8.70.
