Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, September 12, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Crude oil prices briefly dipped below $100 a barrel today for the first time since April, even as Hurricane Ike barreled towards the Texas coast. The storm is expected to make landfall near Galveston late tonight or early tomorrow. Refineries in the region are shut down, and that's raising concerns about gasoline supplies. Inventories are already low and draws after Ike could send them to their lowest levels in almost two decades. Today, light sweet crude for October delivery settled up $0.31 at $101.18 a barrel in New York trading. Wall Street opened with a steep sell-off. At 10:00 a.m., the Dow was already down 144 points and the NASDAQ off 28 points. Then talk about several potential buyers for Lehman Brothers and that dip in oil prices helped stocks recover by midday with the Dow off only 10 points and the NASDAQ up 3 points. The market remained mixed for the rest of the day on pre-weekend investor caution. The Dow Industrial Average closed down 11.72 at 11,421.99. This week it fell twice and rose three times for a net gain of 201.03 points. The NASDAQ gained 3.05 to 2,261.27 today. And it rose in four of this week's five sessions, gaining 5.39 points overall. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 2.65, ending at 1,251.70 today. For the week it gained 9.39 points. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 20/32 to 102 9/32, putting the yield at 3.72 percent.
Most active Big Board issue, trading 36.3 million shares, American International Group (AIG), down another $5.41, or 30 percent of its value lost today. Investors fear the company will face billions of additional losses tied to home loans whose values have plummeted, and may need to raise more capital. After the close, Standard & Poor's threatened that it might have to make a ratings cut.
Lehman Brothers (LEH) down $0.57 today, it traded as low as $3.17. As you heard, they're shopping for a buyer.
Washington Mutual (WM) lost a dime a share today. And the company said it has sufficient capital. American Bankers magazine reports that JPMorgan (JPM) is in advanced talks to acquire WaMu.
Merrill Lynch (MER) down $2.38. Yesterday, a Sanford Bernstein analyst said next to Lehman Brothers, Merrill is the most vulnerable Wall Street firm to have any big trouble.
Ford Motor (F) moved up $0.23 on optimism it will get low-cost government loans for developing fuel-efficient cars.
Gold was in the spotlight -- well, let's get rid of the rest of the active list first. GE (GE) down $1.41. No specific news I saw.
Citigroup (C) fell $0.65.
Bank of America (BAC), a $0.68 gain.
Wells Fargo (WFC), a $0.44 advance there.
And then JPMorgan (JPM) losing $0.48, 10th in volume.
Now let's have a look at gold, which was in the spotlight today. The December contract in New York up $19 an ounce at $764.50 the ounce. Agnico Eagle (AEM) up$7.73, almost a $3 gain in Barrick (ABX). Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), Goldcorp (GG), and Newmont Mining (NEM) all doing well.
CONSOL Energy (CNX) up $4.13. The company plans to buy back up to $500 million of its own stock. And the Jefferies brokerage started coverage of the stock today with a buy.
It also started coverage with buys on these stocks in the coal business: Arch Coal (ACI), Massey Energy (MEE), and Peabody (BTU), all of which moved up rather smartly.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) plunging $14.45. The company sees third- quarter earnings slightly below year-ago levels due to the economic slowdown in the national, and also because of higher food costs. That had an undermining effect on a lot of other food and restaurant stocks: Brinker (EAT), CEC Entertainment (CEC), Darden (DRI), and Panera Bread (PNRA) all down on the Chipotle news.
Federal Agricultural Mortgage (AGM), also known as Farmer Mae, down $8.20. The company sees a third-quarter loss mainly due to a $44 million charge from its investment in Fannie Mae (FNM) preferred stock.
Cemex (CX), the big Mexican cement-maker, down $1.45. The company sees third-quarter earnings down 3 percent from year-ago due to lower-than- expected results in its U.S. and U.K. operations.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL), down $3.71.
And then Google (GOOG) moving up $3.91.
Research In Motion (RIMM) fell $3.65.
Microsoft (MSFT), a $0.28 gain.
Intel (INTC) dropped $0.03 a share.
Cisco (CSCO), a $0.41 advance.
Qualcomm (QCOM) fell $1.17.
Baidu.com (BIDU) losing $0.51.
But Oracle (ORCL) up $0.26.
Gilead Sciences (GILD) fell $0.92 a share.
PharmaNet Development (PDGI) plunging $11.79, or 51 percent of its value. The company cut its full-year revenue and earnings targets for the second time this year. Now sees a loss for the year instead of a profit, as it forecast earlier.
And finally, Diodes (DIOD) down $2.51. The company sees third-quarter earnings at the low end of its estimate of $0.26 to $0.30 a share.
Those are some "Stocks in the News" tonight.
