Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street struggled today under the weight of those higher oil price and Merrill Lynch's negative comments about General Motors. While stocks did move higher at the outset of trading, they quickly turned south as the dollar weakened. By mid-day, the Dow fell to a 64-point loss and the NASDAQ was off 31 points. Increasing pessimism and the realization of a bear market for the Dow Industrials caused a scarcity of buyers this afternoon, so the market slumped to the day's lowest level at the final bell. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 166.75 points at 11,215.51. The NASDAQ Composite fell 53.51 points to 2251.46, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 23.39 points, ending at 1261.52. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 12/32 to 99 10/32, putting the yield at 3.96 percent.
Once again at the top of the active list, today on 23 million shares was Citigroup (C) losing $0.29.
Followed by Bank of America (BAC) down $1.27. RBC Capital cut Bank of America's 2008 and 2009 earnings estimates.
Lehman Brothers (LEH) up $1.40. It was up $1.15 yesterday when Morgan Stanley put an "over weight" rating on the stock with a target of $31 a share. Lehman today said it's going to pay employees more in stock if they decide to stay with the firm.
Ford Motor Co (F) down $0.35.
And then General Electric (GE) a $0.61 loss there.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) edged up $0.58. A number of U.S. bank stocks were boosted by good news from Deutsche Bank which I'll get to shortly.
Co vale do Rio (RIO) down $2.17.
Wachovia (WB) off $0.75.
And then Pfizer (PFE) an $0.11 drop.
EMC Corp (EMC) was up $0.33 a share.
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) rising $2.04. The company and Plains Exploration are in a joint venture in the Haynesville shale operation. Plains will acquire a 20 percent interest in Chesapeake's lease hold for a price of $1.65 billion. Plains stock fell $3.89 a share.
Then Deutsche Bank AG (DB) up $2.04. The company expects a profit in the current quarter versus a loss a year ago and said it does not need any new capital.
Massey Energy (MEE), the coal miner, down $17.47. Reportedly the company may have to pay $125 million in damages if it looses a pollution suit that insurers would refuse to cover. That $125 million would be over half of Massey's 2008 estimated net income. That had a negative impact on some other coal stocks and so did a sharp drop in the price of coal today.
Arch Coal (ACI), Consol Energy (CNX) and Peabody Energy (BTU) all well on the downside today.
Avis Budget (CAR) down $1.60. The car rental stocks for the second day in a row having a hard time. Avis said it sees second quarter earnings below where they were last year.
And then Dollar Thrifty Automotive (DTG) and Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ) down in sympathy, significant losses to both of those percentage wise.
Family Dollar Stores (FDO) moving up $1.66 on higher third quarter earnings of $0.46 versus $0.40 last year. Sales were flat in the period, but the company sees fourth quarter same stores sales rising 4 to 6 percent.
On the downside, Technitrol (TNL) fell $1.94. The company sees second quarter operating profit of $12 million, way down from its previous guidance of a profit of $25 million.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, down $6.50.
Research in Motion (RIMM) losing just over $7.
Google (GOOG) a loss of $7.69.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.99. "Wall Street Journal" reports Microsoft approached News Corps and Time Warner to join in a deal to acquire certain parts of Yahoo!. We'll see Yahoo! in just a moment.
Baidu.com (BIDU) down $5.65.
And there's Yahoo! (YHOO) with a gain of $0.68.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.31.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.77 loss.
Apollo Group (APOL), the adult education company, up $8.52. Third quarter earnings $0.91, up from $0.81 a year ago and $0.13 above the Street estimate. The company says its enrollments in the third quarter were up 11 percent. The company plans to buy back up to $500 million of its own stock.
Some other in the adult education group did well on that news, Devry (DV) rising $5.06.
And ITT Education (GGI) up $2.74.
Then First Solar (FSLR), tenth in volume on NASDAQ, down $22.84, little profit taking there.
Middlebrook Pharmaceuticals (MBRK) down $1.52 at $1.55, down $1.55 at $1.52. The story here, the company is getting a $1100 million capital infusion from Equity Group Investments and the CEO is stepping down on that news.
