Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, July 24, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: The continuing decline in home sales combined with an $8.8 billion second quarter loss at Ford Motor to set a very bearish tone for trading on Wall Street this morning. A much larger than expected 34,000 rise in new weekly jobless benefit claims added to the market's woes. By 11:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m., the Dow was off 148 points, NASDAQ down 29. The sell off gained momentum this afternoon on the growing belief that the recent market recovery was not a major bottom. So stocks closed at their worst levels of the day. The Dow Industrial Average tumbled 283.10 points at 11,349.28. The NASDAQ Composite was down 45.77 at 2280.11, while the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 29.65 points to 12,052.54. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 30/32 to 99 even, putting the yield at 4 percent even.
New York exchange volume leader on 50 million shares was Washington Mutual (WM) down $0.62. It fell as low as $3.56 on growing concern about the bank's credit quality. Reportedly some creditors have been pulling funds out of the bank.
Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) weak in that group.
XTO Energy (XTO) bucked the trend, up $0.54. Last night, the company priced 26 million share offering at 48.
Wachovia (WB) down almost $2.
And then looking elsewhere on the active list, Ford Motor (F) a $0.92 drop there. Second quarter loss of $3.88 a share on a 6.1 percent drop in revenues and the company said it sees a challenging second half.
Co Vale do Rio (RIO) down $1.20.
General Electric (GE), Wells Fargo (WFC), Fannie Mae (FNM) all on the downside in that weak financial group.
Boeing (BA) off $4.19. Citigroup cut earnings estimates for Boeing and also cut its price target from $69 down to $62 a share and also put out a "sell" on the stock.
Mechel OAO (MTL) or Mechel, this is a big Russian mining and steel company, down $13.77 after Russian Prime Minister Putin criticized the company's pricing policies, saying it's selling raw materials in domestic markets for double the price of what it's charging for exports.
Radioshack (RSH) up $1.93. Second quarter earnings were $0.32, down from $0.34 a year ago, but $0.06 above the Street estimate. Same store sales rose 7 percent and the company will buy back up to $200 million of its own stock.
Varian Medical (VAR) up $5.25. Third quarter earnings jumped to $0.58 from $0.39 a year ago. Revenues were up 15 percent.
Amerisource Bergen (ABC), the drug distributor, a $3.15 gain, $0.70 in third quarter earnings, up $0.03 from last year. Revenues up 10 percent. The company boosted its 2008 earnings guidance.
Benchmark Elect (BHE) down $4.34. Third quarter earnings fell to $0.33 from $0.35 last year on about a 1 percent drop in revenues.
And then home builder Ryland Group (RYL) off $5.07. The company had a huge second quarter loss of $5.70, much bigger than last year. Revenues tumbled 34 percent from last year.
MEMC Electronics (WFR) down $11.57. Second quarter earnings, $0.92, up from $0.70 last year, but $0.08 below the Street estimate and the company however did set an additional $500 million stock buyback.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) down $16.50. Second quarter earnings were up $0.74 versus $0.60 but a penny below the Street consensus. Standard & Poor's downgraded it from "hold" to "sell," Jefferies from "buy" down to a "hold."
And then the Starwood Hotels (HOT) stock down $4.56. Second quarter earnings, $0.56. That's down from $0.67 a year ago despite nearly a 10 percent rise in revenues. Standard & Poor's downgraded its "sell" to a "strong sell."
And then Gardner Denver (GDI) down $9.83. Second quarter earnings higher, $0.93 versus $0.83 a year ago, but it warned second half is already showing weakness in its businesses.
Qualcomm (QCOM) topped the NASDAQ active list up $7.61. The company and Nokia have settled their patent litigation problems.
Apple (AAPL) in there with a big loss.
Amazon.com (AMZN) however, up $8.18. Better than expected second quarter earnings out yesterday. Today Sanford Bernstein brokerage boosted its price target from $90 to $97 a share.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $46.38. Second quarter earnings came in at $1.23. That was $0.26 better than the Wall Street estimate.
Microsoft (MSFT) in there with about $1 loss.
Google (GOOG) down $13.16.
Research in Motion (RIMM), Intel (INTC), Cisco Systems (CSCO) all on the downside.
And Broadcom (BRCM) fell $2.53.
Crocs (CROX), look at that loss of $0.93 in regular day trading, but after the close, the stock tumbled to around $4.50 after the company cut its second quarter earnings guidance to only $0.03 to $0.07 from its previous estimate of $0.42 to $0.47 a share.
And those are the stocks in the news.
