Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street opened higher as investors were cheered by Warren Buffett's $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs (GS), which we told you about last night. By 11:00 a.m. the Dow was up 30 points and the NASDAQ up 20 points. The market turned mixed during midday as traders moved to the sidelines to watch the debate on Capitol Hill. In the absence of any major developments, stocks lost more ground this afternoon in very slow trading and ended near the day's lows. The Dow Industrial Average closed off exactly 29 points at 10,825.17. The NASDAQ Composite managed to gain 2.35 to 2,155.68. And in a statistical oddity, the S&P 500 fell 2.35, ending at 1,185.87. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 4/32 to 101 16/32, putting the yield at 3.82 percent.
The most active Big Board issue on 34.4 million shares, American International Group (AIG), losing $1.69. The company, however, today did sign that two-year pact with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for an $85 billion credit facility.
Washington Mutual (WM) still looking for a buyer, down $0.94.
And then National City (NCC), a $0.20 loss there.
But Goldman Sachs (GS) up $7.95. As you heard, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) investing $5 billion. And also the company itself is selling 40.6 million common shares at $123 each. That's another $5 billion coming into the coffers.
Citigroup (C) was down $1.03, fifth in Big Board volume.
And then Bank of America (BAC) down $0.23.
While Pfizer (PFE) dropped $0.02.
General Electric (GE), a $0.36 drop.
And Morgan Stanley (MS) off $3.21. Reportedly, Morgan Stanley has ended merger talks with Wachovia (WB). Wachovia's stock dropped $0.95 to $13.80.
Then came Exxon Mobil (XOM) with a $0.34 gain.
Lennar (LEN), the homebuilder, doing well, up $2.06. Yesterday the company reported a third-quarter loss of $0.56. The Street was looking for something around $0.63 in the red, so that was better than expected. And it helped some of the other homeowner stocks to rally today, also helping was news of shrinking existing home inventories. Centex (CTX), D.R. Horton (DHI), KB Home (KBH), Ryland Group (RYL), and Toll Brothers (TOL) all on the plus side today.
PPG Industries (PPG) used to be called Pittsburgh Plate Glass, down $2.48. The company said the impact of hurricanes and the slowdown in auto manufacturing will hurt third-quarter results. Down went the stock.
Pilgrim's Pride (PPC), the meat producer, down $3.90. A lot of the leading meat companies were down on concern that the credit crunch will make it harder to get operating loans and loans for expansion. Let's have a look at some other food stocks. Smithfield (SFD) down $1.68, and Tyson (TSN) traded as low as $11.86, but was off $0.68 on the close.
National Financial Partners (NFP) tumbling $5.56. The life insurance firm says the first two months of the third quarter that its total revenues dropped 7 percent in that period and same-store revenues down 10 percent from a year ago.
Medicis Pharmaceuticals (MRX) down $2.34. The skin care products firm is going to restate financials all the way back from 2003 through the first half of this year. It also is suspending any previous earnings guidance for the rest of this year.
MEMC Electronic Material (WFR) up $2.03. This stock up on the Senate's passage of an extension on solar tax credits. And that helped some other stocks, let's have a look at some of those that did well on the Senate's passage: Energy Conversion (ENER), Sunpower (SPWR), and Trina Solar (TSL) all doing very nicely today.
Topping the active list -- well, we missed UAL Corp. (UAUA), down a $1.45. The company's -- there we go.
Apple Computer (AAPL), we wanted to get to the active list in here. Apple up $1.87.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.28 gain there.
Google (GOOG) up $5.84.
Research In Motion (RIMM) fell $0.26.
Intel (INTC) a $0.07 gain.
Some more actives, Cisco (CSCO) up $0.07.
First Solar (FSLR), another one of those strong solar stocks, up $10.91.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.62. The company lost a patent infringement lawsuit to Broadcom (BRCM), whose stock gained a dollar to $19.39.
Amazon.com (AMZN) fell $1.80.
Oracle (ORCL), a $0.26 gainer.
UAL (UAUA), finally we get to it with a loss of a $1.45 on -- the parent of United Airlines fell that much on concerns the upcoming holiday travel season may be a slow one.
And those are the "Stocks in the News" tonight,
