Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, August 04, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: The drop in crude prices sent oil-related stocks to sharp early losses on Wall Street and the selling spread into other commodity- related shares like copper and coal producers. At 11:00 a.m., the Dow was off nearly 100 points; NASDAQ down 28. Bargain hunters lifted the blue chips to small gains at mid-day and briefly again in mid-afternoon, but a weak dollar and growing caution ahead of tomorrow's Fed meeting resulted in moderate closing losses. The Dow Industrial Average ended down 42.17 at 11,284.15. The NASDAQ Composite lost 25.40 to 2285.56. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 11.30 ending at 1249.01. In the bond market, the 10-year note lost 8/32 to 99 8/32, lifting the yield to 3.97 percent.
Big board volume leader on 14.3 million shares, Citigroup (C) moving down $0.04.
Followed by Wachovia (WB) off $1.87. A report issued today from Morgan Keegan brokerage said the recent strength in Wachovia stock was likely short covering purchases and not buying on fundamentals.
Motorola (MOT) up $1.01, positive reaction to the company naming Dr. Sanjay Jha as co-CEO of the company itself and CEO of its mobile devices business.
ExxonMobil (XOM) representing a very weak oil group, down $3.12 on that sharp drop in crude. Let's have a look at some other majors in the oil business.
Anadarko Petroleum (ADC) down $3.59. Just after the close, Anadarko out with second quarter earnings, $1.76, way up from $0.89 a year ago, $0.02 above the Street estimate.
But big losses also in Conocophillips (COP) and Hess (HES), Marathon Oil (MRO), Occidental Petroleum (OXY), casualties on the day, that's for sure.
Getting back to the active list, Co Vale do Rio (RIO) down $1.92, Brazilian mining company very weak today along with other mining companies.
Bank of America (BAC) dropped $0.71.
Washington Mutual (WM) $0.45 loss.
Bucking the trend, Pfizer (PFE) moving up $0.38.
General Electric (GE) a $0.04 loss.
And then Wells Fargo (WFC) tenth in volume down $0.32.
Kindred Healthcare (KND) up $1.78, nicely higher second quarter earnings, $0.38, up from $0.20 last year. Wachovia upgraded it from "market perform" to "out perform."
Then the health care insurance company Humana (HUM) up $2.17. Second quarter earnings a bit lower, $1.24 versus last year's $1.28, but $0.06 above the Wall Street consensus. The company boosted its 2008 guidance by a nickel a share up to $4.40.
Deere & Co (DE) down $4.98. Goldman Sachs downgraded it from "buy" to just a "neutral" rating.
AK Steel (AKS) losing $5.06. Longbow Research downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral."
And then Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) off $10.76 despite second quarter earnings rising to $1.19 from only $0.75 a year ago and the company is going to buy back up to $500 million of its own stock. However, the CEO of the firm said that big oil firms are turning away from and moving to auctions rather than futures in order to hedge, not good for company business apparently.
The coal stocks notably weak today. Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) off $6.54 despite being the subject of takeover speculation by Cleveland Cliffs or Arcelor Mittal.
But Arch Coal (ACI), Consol Energy (CNX), Massey Energy (MEE) and Patriot Coal (PCX) all major casualties on the day in that weak group.
Church & Dwight (CHD) up $2.62. The maker of Arm & Hammer products like baking soda had nicely higher second quarter earnings, $0.66, up from $0.59 a year ago, boosted its 2008 guidance.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $3.43.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.16 drop.
Research in Motion (RIMM) off $3.72.
Qualcomm (QCOM) fell $2.60, a negative reaction to Dr. Sanjay Ja, who is moving from COO of Qualcomm to CEO of Motorola.
Google (GOOG) down $4.86.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) no change there.
Intel (INTC) moved up $0.17.
And Dell (DELL) a $0.98 gain.
First Solar (FSLR) down $13.50.
And then Amgen (AMGN) was up $0.89.
Bucyrus (BUCY) down $11.39, manufactures mining equipment and down with those hard-hit mining and commodity stocks.
And then Dish Network (DISH) losing $1.05. Second quarter earnings nicely higher, $0.73 versus $0.50 a year ago, but the company said it lost 25,000 subscribers in the second quarter.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
