Paul Kangas' Socks in the News
Friday, May 23, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened broadly lower as a rebound in oil futures sent buyers to the sidelines. One hour into trading, the Dow was off 117 points. The NASDAQ fell 19 points. That drop in existing home sales kept sellers in command, as did a weaker dollar. By mid-afternoon, the Dow fell 163 points while the NASDAQ was off 30 points. Many traders made early exits ahead of the long weekend so the market remained deep in the red right into the final bell. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 149.99 (sic) points at 12,479.63. This week, the index rose twice, fell three times, had an overall loss of 507.17 points. The NASDAQ Composite fell 19.91 closing at 2,444.67 today and the index fell in four of the last five sessions for an overall drop of 84.18 points. Standard & Poor's 500 ended the day off 18.42 at 1,375.93 and for the week, the 500 was down 49.42 points. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 18/32 to par and 6/32, putting the yield at 3.85 percent.
New York exchange volume leader on 15.3 million shares, General Electric (GE) moving down $0.58.
Then Ford Motor (F) with a $0.29 loss. Calyon Securities downgraded Ford from "add" to "neutral." Standard & Poor's downgraded the outlook for Ford from "stable" to "negative."
Citigroup (C) with a $0.60 loss.
Anheuser Busch (BUD) up $4.03 to an all-time closing high. The "Financial Times" reports that Belgian brewing giant Inbev is considering a $65 a share takeover bid for Anheuser Bush.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.25 loss.
Moving along on the active, Bank of America (BAC) lost $0.80.
Nucor (NUE) down $2.23. It's in the midst of offering 25 million of its shares priced at $74 each.
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.61 loss there.
SprintNextel (S) down $0.22.
Amer Intl Group (AIG) dropped $0.86. Moody's cut the company's debt rating from AA2 to AA3 after the company sold $20 billion in equity debt and convertible securities.
General Motors (GM) hitting about a 10-year low with that $0.83 loss. The 11-week strike by a major supplier, American Axle is over, but it cut GM production by 230,000 vehicles. That amounts to $1.8 billion in lost pre-tax earnings for GM.
Lehman Bros (LEH) down $2.39. Hedge fund Greenlight Capital is short the stock and its manager, David Einhorn (ph) says the company hasn't written off enough of its bad assets yet.
Angelica Corp. (AGL) a $4.80 gain. It provides linen and uniform services to health care firms and it's going to be acquired by Lehman Brothers merchant banking partners for $22 a share in cash.
Foot Locker Inc (FL) moved up $1.46. First quarter earnings higher, $0.14 versus $0.11 last year, in line with estimates and Standard & Poor's boosted its price target on Foot Locker by $2 to $14 a share, almost there now.
Del Monte Foods (DLM) down $1.17. Longbow Securities downgraded it from "neutral" to a "sell" recommendation.
And then Universal Corp (UW), which is in the leaf tobacco business, down $8.50 on lower fourth quarter earnings of $0.44, well below $0.65 last year. Revenues dropped 7.3 percent.
Then the restaurant chain Brinker Intl (EAT) off $1.31. Steiffel Nicholas brokerage downgraded it from "hold" to "sell." Goldman Sachs cut earnings estimates on Brinker.
Apple Inc (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, moving up $4.12. Goldman Sachs added the stock to its American conviction (ph) buy list on the bright outlook for the company's new generation or next generation iPhone.
Google (GOOG) down $4.84.
Research in Motion (RIMM) $1.15 gain.
Baidu.com (BIDU) down $6.30.
Intel (INTC) $0.47 drop there.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.42.
Qualcomm (QCOM) moving up $1.89. Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.48 loss.
First Solar (FSLR) did well, up $7.05.
And then Yahoo! (YHOO) with a $0.19 gain.
Vivus Inc ( VVUS) up $1.49. The company had positive results in its mid-stage trials for its diabetes treatment.
On the downside, industrial technology firm Hurco Cos (HURO) plunging $8.75. Second quarter earnings were higher, $0.85 versus last year's $0.73, but that was $0.03 below the Street estimate.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
