Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, August 07, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Tepid July retail sales set a bearish tone for Wall Street this morning, as did a rebound in oil prices and last night's huge loss reported by AIG. In a steady sell-off, the Dow fell to a 139- point loss by noontime, but the NASDAQ Index fell just a modest 7 points. A stronger than expected rise in pending home sales stabilized stocks for a few hours, but news this afternoon that U.S. consumers took on $14 billion in debt in June sent the market tumbling to the day's lowest level by the final bell. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 224.64 points at 11,431.43. The NASDAQ Composite lost 22.64 to 2,355.73. Standard & Poor's 500 down 23.12 ending at 1,266.07. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 35/32 to par and 19/32, lowering the yield to 3.93 percent.
Big board volume leader was SprintNextel (S) moving up $0.45 after losing $1.21 yesterday after it reported a second quarter loss of $0.12 a share, but today it canceled an offering of $3 billion in convertible preferred stock. That was a plus.
American Intl Group (AIG) plunging $5.25. That accounted for 42 points of the Dow's loss. After the close yesterday, the company reported a huge net loss in the second quarter of $2.06 a share.
Citigroup (C) down $1.23. As you heard, it's going to be doing (ph) $7 billion of auction-rate securities.
Bank of America (BAC) in the same boat, down $1.93.
Wells Fargo (WFC) fell $1.30.
Washington Mutual (WM) fell $0.33.
Wachovia (WB) down $1.29.
General Electric (GE) a $0.43 loss.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) off $1.58.
And then came Pfizer (PFE), tenth in volume, down $0.22.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) plunging $3.80. That accounted for 31 points of the Dow's loss and as you heard, its July same store sales were a bit lower than expected and the guidance was not particularly bullish.
JC Penny (JCP) however did well, up $1.93. The company boosted its second quarter earnings guidance from $0.38 to $0.50 to $0.52 a share on better than expected sales coming along and cost cuts are helping also.
Abercrombie & Fitch ( ANF) down $5.93. Its July same store sales were down 7 percent.
Brookdale Senior Living (BKD) up $2.63. The company reported a second quarter loss of $0.03, nowhere near as bad as the $0.18 loss last year. The Street was looking for a loss of $0.32, so much better than expected.
OM Group (OMG) up $5.46. Second quarter earnings $1.85, up from last year's $1.52 and the company has an upbeat outlook.
Apparel maker Warnaco Group (WRC) up $4.04. Second quarter operating earnings jumped to $0.71 from only $0.46 last year and revenues were up 22 percent. Standard & Poor's upgraded the stock from "hold" to a "buy."
Emergent Biosolutions (EBS) plunging $3.35. Second quarter earnings of $0.06 versus a loss of $0.17 a share last year, but the Street was looking for earnings of $0.23.
And also on the downside, King Pharmaceuticals (KG) losing $2.14. Second quarter earnings came in at $0.18, down from $0.26 last year and the company's (INAUDIBLE) blood pressure drug is getting some tough generic competition.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $0.62.
Intel (INTC) an $0.87 gain.
Research in Motion (RIMM) dropped a nickel a share.
Microsoft (MSFT) up $0.37.
And Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.35 loss there.
Google (GOOG) was down $7.22.
Oracle (ORCL) fell $0.11.
Qualcomm (QCOM) an $0.18 drop.
baidu.com (BIDU) backing down $11.18.
And then Amgen (AMGN) off $1.45.
Verisign (VRSN) fell $4.31. This is an Internet switchboard manufacturer. Second quarter loss of $0.35 versus a loss of only $0.02 a year ago. That's due in part to restructuring claims in this period.
And then Noble International (NOBL) up $2.21, big gain there. The automotive products maker had second quarter earnings jump to $0.35 from only $0.13 a year ago. Sales jumped 72 percent. The Street was actually looking for a loss of $0.07 a share, so much better than expected.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
