Paul Kangas Stocks in the News
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: With those declines in home prices and consumer confidence, Wall Street's bears had plenty to feed on this morning and the result was a steep opening sell off. The Dow tumbled about 100 points at the outset, down to this year's low at the 11,740 level. The NASDAQ fell 24 points early on. The blue chips found buying support at that low and that triggered a nice rally which lifted the Dow to a 56 point gain at mid-day. But the market then slumped on caution ahead of tomorrow's Fed meeting. So the Dow Industrial Average closed off 34.93 at 11,807.43, while the NASDAQ fell 17.46 to 2368.28. Standard & Poor's 500 lost 3.71, ending at 1314.29. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 18/32 to 98 8/32, putting the yield at 4.09 percent.
Topping the big board active list on 23 million shares, Citigroup (C) moving up $0.30. Merrill Lynch now sees a second quarter loss for Citigroup of $0.50 a share versus its previous estimate for earnings of $0.39 and Credit Suisse sees a second quarter loss of $0.42 versus its previous estimate for earnings of $0.44. Nevertheless, Citigroup stock up. As a matter of fact, there were a number of financial stocks staging little rebounds today. Ford Motor Co (F) wasn't one of them.
But Bank of America (BAC) was. It looks like a little bottom fishing going on in the group.
Pfizer (PFE) in there with a $0.31 gain.
And General Electric (GE) up $0.19, all gainers on the first five actives.
Wachovia (WB) moved up $0.94. The company is hiring Goldman Sachs to evaluate its loan portfolio just as Wachovia is seeking a new CEO.
Washington Mutual (WM) down $0.16.
But JPMorgan Chase (JPM) rose $0.85.
Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) $0.94 gain there.
AT&T (T) down $0.11, tenth in volume.
Caterpillar (CAT) down $3.36, a little bit of a negative reaction to the company's acquisition of the Brazilian locomotive and train car manufacturer which is privately held. It's called MGE Equipment. No price was disclosed by Caterpillar.
Eastman Kodak (EK) the star of the day, up $1.69. It's going to buy back up to $1 billion of its own stock and it's definitely with the help of the IRS, which is giving the company a tax refund of $581 million as we touched on earlier.
Kroger Co (KR), the big grocery chain, up $1.82. First quarter earnings nicely higher, $0.58 versus $0.47 a year ago. Sales were up 12 percent and the company boosted its 2009 earnings and sales guidance.
UBS Ag (UBS), the big financial firm, up $1.43. Dow Jones news wire reported that HSBC might be eyeing the company as an $80 billion buyout bid.
United Parcel (UPS) down $4. After the close last night as we reported, the company cut its second quarter earnings guidance from a high of $1.04 a share down to $0.88 a share at best and today the Baird brokerage downgraded the stock from "out perform" to "neutral." And incidentally, UPS closed near a five-year low today.
Centurytel (CTL) had a great day, up $5.53. The company declared a one-time special dividend of $0.6325 per share and is boosting the annual dividend - get this from only $0.27 to $2.80 a share annually. That's a 10- fold increase.
Centex (CTX) up $1.05. Credit Suisse began covering the home building group with an "overweight" rating in the belief that inventory levels will peak out next spring, little bottom fishing going on in that group today.
Emerson Electric (EMR) down $2.66. Credit Suisse downgraded it from "out perform" to a "neutral" rating.
And then Marvel Entertainment (MVL) - well we missed Marvel, but news in there with a $1.52 gain on an RBC upgrade.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, edging $0.09 higher.
Google (GOOG) down $2.91.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $2.58. Incidentally, earnings for RIMM due tomorrow. The Street's expecting $0.85 a share.
Yahoo! (YHOO) was up $0.59.
And Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.24. Both companies declined comment on rumors some form of alliance between Yahoo! and Microsoft is imminent. No comment from either.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $1.54.
Baidu.com (BIDU) fell $12.14.
Intel (INTC) edge up a nickel a share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.07 loss.
And then First Solar (FSLR) was up $0.22 a share.
Kewaunee Scientific (KECU) plunging $6.21, losing 35 percent of its value on lower fourth quarter earnings of $0.17 versus $0.21 a year ago. The company had disappointing sales of its laboratory products.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
