Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, August 18, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened on the downside as the controversy over the outlook for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac gave investors what they dislike the most: uncertainty. A weaker dollar also helped send the Dow off - go off 112 points by noon, with the NASDAQ losing 19 points. With the financial sector acting as the major drag, the Dow fell as much as 220 points this afternoon. But then some late bargain buying trimmed the loss by the final bell. The Dow Industrial Average closed down 180.51 at 11,479.39. The NASDAQ Composite fell 35.54 ending at 2,416.98, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 19.60 to 1,278.60. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 8/32 to 101 16/32, putting the yield at 3.82 percent.
Big board volume leader on 15 million shares, Citigroup (C) moving down $0.93 in the weak financial group.
Then Freddie Mac (FRE) tumbling $1.46 or 25 percent of its value gone with this controversy over the outlook.
Bank of America (BAC) down $1.40.
And then Pfizer (PFE) fell $0.33.
General Electric (GE), fifth in volume was a $0.45 loser.
Fannie Mae (FNM), the cousin of Freddie Mac, down $1.76, over a 20 percent drop there too.
Ford Motor (F) lost $0.22.
Kraft Foods (KFT) $0.29 loss.
Wells Fargo (WFC) fell $0.96.
But Unionbancal (UB) up $7.69. The company has accepted a sweetened $73.50 cash buyout bid from Mitsubishi U.S.J. limited. It'll buy the 35 percent it doesn't already own and that's up from its original offer of $63 a share.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) up or down $0.99 a share. Third quarter earnings due out tomorrow. Wall Street's estimate right around $0.83 a share.
And then we see Home Depot (HD) losing $0.57. Second quarter earnings as I mentioned due out tomorrow. The Street estimate is $0.61 a share and incidentally, Lowes edged up $0.04 on its better than expected earnings, even though they were lower.
The housing stocks particularly weak today. There are so many existing homes on the market, not good for new home builders. As we see Centex (CTX), KB Home (KBH), Lennar (LEN), MDC Holdings (MDC) and Ryland Group (RYL) all on the downside today.
Another very weak group, the resort and casino stocks, there's going to be an expected drop in Labor Day holiday travel according to some analysts and that had these stocks under pressure. Boyd Gaming (BYD), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), MGM Mirage (MGM) and then of course Wynn Resorts (WYNN) down $5.57.
First Marblehead (FMD) up $2.14, a 71 percent gain, not bad. Goldman Sachs Capital Partners has completed its $132 million cash equity investment in First Marblehead.
Moving along, we see Hershey Co (HSY) down $3.91. Friday, as we reported, the company said it's raising prices and it said its 2008 earnings will be at the lower end of its previous estimate of $1.85 to $1.90 per share.
Robert Half (RHI), the staffing company, down $1.75. Lehman downgraded it from "equal weight" to "under weight."
And Lennox International (LII), the air conditioning company, down $2.72. Keybanc brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold" rating.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, losing $0.35.
Then Google (GOOG) down $11.85.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $1.79.
Intel (INTC) $0.25 loss there.
And Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.12 a share.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.42 drop.
Amylin Pharm (AMLN) down $4.45. The FDA is seeking stronger warnings about the risk of pancreatitis in patients taking the company's diabetes drug called Byetta.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $1.03 loss there.
Amgen (AMGN) fell $0.56.
And Baidu.com (BIDU) down $13.76.
Elsewhere we see Focus Media Holdings (FMCN) up $2.30. This is a Chinese digital ad company. Second quarter earnings rose to $0.44 from $0.38 a year ago, $0.04 better than the Street consensus and the company's upbeat on the outlook, nice gain in the stock.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
