Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, September 19, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: As we mentioned, the federal bailout plan launched a rollicking opening rally on Wall Street. The Dow rocketed 425 points at the outset of trading, while the NASDAQ vaulted 70 points. There were some minor pullbacks during the middle part of the trading session. But optimism that the federal intervention will work kept the rally very much alive right on through to the closing bell. The Dow Industrial Average ended up 368.75 points at 11,388.44. This week it fell twice and rose three times, but had a net loss of 33.55 points. The NASDAQ Composite soared 74.80 to 2,273.90 today. It also fell twice and rose three times this week, gaining 12.63 points overall. Standard & Poor's 500 jumped 48.57 today, ending at 1,255.08, and for the week it rose 3.38 points. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note lost 2 3/32 to 101 18/32, putting the yield at 3.81 percent.
By far and way the most active Big Board issue, trading 90.5 million shares, American International Group (AIG), rebounding $1.16. Major shareholders are trying to pay off a big federal loan before government takes an 80 percent equity stake, which of course, would heavily dilute their stake.
Citigroup (C) was up $3.82 on the strong financials. Standard & Poor's upgraded Citigroup from hold to a buy.
General Electric (GE) in there with a gain of $1.83.
Bank of America (BAC) doing well up $6.90. Standard & Poor's upgraded it from sell to a buy, quite a change.
Washington Mutual (WM), a $1.26 gain, big percentage move there.
Wachovia (WB) did well, up $4.25.
Pfizer (PFE), a $0.56 rise.
And Wells Fargo (WFC) gaining $2.80.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $6.75.
Exxon Mobil (XOM) up $1.86 as oil prices moved $6 higher and then some today.
General Motors (GM), a Dow stock doing well, up $1.68. The stock up on rising hopes the government will approve a $25 billion loan package to help the troubled U.S. auto industry.
Some other strong Dow stocks: American Express (AXP), Chevron (CVX), DuPont (DD), IBM (IBM), and 3M (MMM) all nicely higher in today's rally.
Texas Instruments (TXN) edged up $0.82. The company plans to boost its quarterly dividend 10 percent to $0.11 a share.
On the downside, major casualty Ambac Financial (ABK) losing $2.80. Moody's said that it may downgrade the financial strength of this bond insurer due to mounting mortgage losses. It did the same downgrade on another bond insurer, MBIA (MBI), which fell $1.12.
Genworth Financial (GNW), that's a GE spinoff of some time ago, up $6.10. After the close yesterday, the company says it has had $900 million cash in its holding company, and an additional $4 billion cash or cash equivalence in its operating company.
Aegon (AEG) up $1.42. The company says it does not hold a common equity stake in American International Group.
IHS (IHS), and this is an info company, down $10.90. Third-quarter earnings came out higher, $0.56 versus $0.43. But revenues were a real shortfall, $270 million in the period. The Street was looking for $214 million.
OfficeMax (OMX) losing $2.12. Friedman Billings Ramsey brokerage downgraded it from outperform to market perform. On the other hand, Friedman Billings upgraded McAfee (MFE) from underperform to market perform.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, up $6.82.
Google (GOOG) did well, up $10.07.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.10.
Research In Motion (RIMM), a $5.26 advance.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) rose $1.49.
Intel (INTC), $0.03 loss there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) gained $2.04.
Oracle (ORCL) rising $1.32. After the close yesterday, as we reported, Oracle's first-quarter earnings, $0.29, up from $0.22 a year ago, $0.02 above the Street estimate. Today Standard & Poor's repeated a strong buy on Oracle.
Dell (DELL), a $0.62 loss there.
And Amazon.com (AMZN) up exactly $4.50.
eTelecare Global Solutions (ETEL) up $3.35 on news that Ayala Corp. had started a $9 a share cash tender offer.
And those are our "Stocks in the News" tonight.
