Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Continuing worries over the delicate condition of the credit markets had Wall Street on the defensive early today, as did lower July retail sales, which we'll detail in a moment, and of course there was that up-tick in oil prices. After an hour of trading, the Dow posted a 135-point loss, with the NASDAQ off only five points, thanks to a firm tech sector. A comeback in the oil, steel and coal sectors helped the market recover briefly this afternoon, but the blue chips sold off again in the final hour. The Dow Industrial Average closed down 109.51 at 11,532.96. The NASDAQ Composite lost only 1.99 ending at 2,428.62. Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 3.76 to 1,285.83. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 10/32 to par and 16/32, lifting the yield to 9 point or make it 3.94 percent.
Big board volume leader on 23 million shares, Merrill Lynch (MER) up $0.72.
Followed by Bank of America (BAC) down $2.27.
And speaking of Merrill Lynch, it affected Citigroup (C) today. Merrill widened Citigroup's third quarter loss estimate from minus $0.28 to minus $0.55, cut its price target on Citigroup from $20 down to $16. Merrill also increased loss estimates and cut price targets for a host of investment banks, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers.
Kraft Foods (KFT) in there with a $0.19 gain.
Ford Motor (F) $0.31 drop there.
Pfizer (PFE) an $0.08 loss.
ExxonMobil (XOM) up $1.29 leading a strong energy sector on the higher oil prices.
Let's have a look at some of the other majors in the oil group.
Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), Hess (HES), Marathon (MRO) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY) all posting very nice closing gains.
Elsewhere we see Wells Fargo (WFC) losing $1.09.
Wachovia (WB) fell $1.19.
And Amer Intl Group (AIG) down $0.80 a share, tenth in volume.
Deere (DE) lost $2.25 and believe it or not, during the day it traded as low as $61. Third quarter earnings out this morning, $1.32, up from $1.18 last year, but $0.04 below the Street estimate and Deere's outlook was below projections on the Street.
Longs Drug Stores (LDG) up $16.66 or almost 31 percent. After the close yesterday as we reported, CVS Caremark will acquire Longs for $71.50 a share in cash.
Fertilizer stocks strong along with other commodities, Agrium (AGU), Intrepid Potash (IPI), Monsanto (MON), Mosaic (MOS) and Potash (POT) all posting nice gains in that strong group.
Tween Brands (TWB), one of the biggest percentage losers, off $6.87. After the close yesterday, second quarter loss of $0.27 reported versus earnings of $0.07 last year. Sales fell 8 percent. Citigroup downgraded the stock from "hold" to "sell" today and yesterday the company also announced the closing of 26 under performing stocks, or stores I should say.
And then Liz Clairborne (LIZ), another retailer, down $1.73. Second quarter earnings at only $0.09, down from $0.23 last year on a 7 percent drop in sales.
Watson Wyatt (WW) was a $0.37 loss at the close, but it traded as low as $51.57. It reported higher fourth quarter earnings of $0.95, up from $0.71 but forecast first quarter earnings of only $0.82 to $0.85. The Baird brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to "neutral" on a valuation basis.
And Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) chart looks a little strange, of course this is a spin off from Cadbury, up $1.13 today. Second quarter earnings, $0.60, up from $0.56 a year ago and the company is upbeat on its revenue outlook.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, up $2.57. Best Buy will begin selling the company's 3GI (ph) phones for - starting September 7th, first big retailer to do so in this country.
Down $1.39 on Research in Motion (RIMM).
Google (GOOG) fell $2.58.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.21 loss there.
And Intel (INTC) dropped $0.40, very active however.
Qualcomm (QCOM) up $1.18 bucking the trend.
Cisco (CSCO) $0.19 loss.
Applied Materials (AMAT) up $0.86. Third quarter earnings $0.17, down from $0.37 a year ago, but $0.03 better than the Street consensus and Standard & Poor's repeated a "buy" on Applied Materials today.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $4.04.
And Nvidia (NVDA) $1.19 gain. After the close yesterday, second quarter earnings $0.13, down from $0.34, but a penny better than the Street expected and Nvidia will buy back an addition $1 billion of its stock.
And finally semiconductor manufacturer Cree (CREE) jumped $3.05 on better than expected fourth quarter earnings of $0.16 versus $0.09 a year ago. Morgan Keegan brokerage repeated an "out perform."
