Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, September 04, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Those lackluster retail sales sent stocks on Wall Street skidding sharply lower this morning as investors became more convinced a recession was either here now or on its way. In a steady sell-off, the Dow fell 246 points by noon, with the NASDAQ off 43 points. A continued decline in oil prices also weighed on stocks, as investors blamed oil's drop on slowing global demand. So the market went on to close at the day's worst levels. The Dow Industrial Average tumbled 344.65, ending at 11,188.23. The NASDAQ Composite plunged 74.69 to 2,259.04, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 38.15, ending at 1,236.83. Flight to safety in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 21/32 to 103 3/32, putting the yield down to 3.63 percent.
The most active New York Exchange stock on 17.75 million shares, Ford Motor (F), losing $0.18.
Followed by Citigroup (C) in a weak financial sector, down $1.31.
Bank of America (BAC) lost $2.36.
GE (GE), an $0.87 loss there.
And Pfizer (PFE) down $0.53 a share.
Corning (GLW) down another $0.45. It was down $2.45 yesterday after the company cut its third-quarter earnings guidance.
Time Warner (TWX), an $0.87 loss.
Wells Fargo (WFC) down $1.34.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) lost a $1.80.
And Wachovia (WB) down $1.65 in this blizzard of minus signs.
Moving along, we see American International Group (AIG) down another $1.36. The New York Post reports that AIG may form a separate company to hold billions of risky credit assets that have dogged its balance sheet. But the company says that's pure speculation.
Boeing (BA), one of the weaker Dow stocks, off $3.04. Its machinists union voted to strike, but agreed to postpone a strike for 48 hours in a last- ditch effort to reach an agreement. Some other very weak Dow stocks today: American Express (AXP), Caterpillar (CAT), Chevron (CVX), IBM (IBM), United Tech (UTX), these losses combined with these five stocks accounted for 127 points of the Dow's 344-point loss today.
Terex (TEX) group tumbling $9.30. The company cut its 2008 earnings guidance from a high of $7.15 down to $6.65 a share at best. The Street's estimate is around $7.06 a share.
Some other very weak heavy equipment makers: Agco (AG), Cummins (CMI), Deere & Company (DE), they're all down substantially in tandem with Terex.
Navistar (NAV), however, one that bucked that trend very nicely, up $4.96 after reporting third-quarter earnings of $3.68, way up from a nickel loss a year ago. And sales jumped 34 percent.
Home builder Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV) off $1.35 after reporting a third- quarter loss of $2.67 a share, much larger than last year's loss of $1.27 a share. And revenues tumbled 35 percent. Standard & Poor's issued a sell recommendation today.
And then H&R Block (HRB) down $2.57. The company reported a first-quarter loss of $0.40, bigger than last year's $0.34 loss. And that was $0.05 worse than the Street was expecting. Revenues fell 11 percent. Some of the retailers very weak today, like Limited (LTD), off $1.36, average August same-store sales were down 7 percent. And then Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) down $3.72. It's August same-store sales dropped 11 percent. But one retailer that did well today was Collective Brands (PSS). This is the holding company for Payless Shoe Stores. Second-quarter earnings, $0.54, way up from $0.28 last year. And sales jumped 30 percent.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ active list, down $5.74.
Research In Motion (RIMM) off $7.29.
Google (GOOG), a $14 loss and then some.
Intel (INTC) down $1.02.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.55 a share.
Oracle (ORCL) down $1.26.
Qualcomm (QCOM) fell $0.72.
Cisco (CSCO) losing $1.03.
And Baidu.com (BIDU) tumbled a little over $22.
But finally a gainer, and that was Dell (DELL), up $0.05 a share.
Ciena (CIEN) down $4.34, the communications equipment manufacturer had third-quarter earnings a bit lower, $0.37 versus last year's $0.41. But pretty much in-line with the Street. However, the company cut its fourth- quarter revenue target due to order delays. And that hurt the stock.
And those are our "Stocks in the News" tonight.
