Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, September 29, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street got off to a dismal start, reflecting major losses in foreign markets, bank failures in Europe, and uncertainty about the U.S. bailout vote in Congress. After 30 minutes of trading, the Dow plummeted almost 300 points and the NASDAQ fell 75 points. The market remained down around those early levels for the next several hours. But when the House rejected the bailout plan this afternoon, stocks went into free fall, posting some of their worst point one-day losses ever. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 777.68, ending at 10,365.45. The NASDAQ Composite plummeted 199.61 points to 1,983.73. While the Standard & Poor's 500 Index tumbled 106.59 points to 1,106.42. In the bond market, the 10-year note rallied 2 8/32 to 103 14/32 on flight to safety buying, and that cut the yield down to 3.58 percent.
Most active Big Board issue, trading 35.3 million shares, Citigroup (C), losing $2.40, as you heard. It's buying Wachovia's (WB) banking assets for $2.2 billion. Wachovia's stock plummeted $8.16 to close at $1.84 a share.
American International Group (AIG) in there with a $0.65 loss.
Bank of America (BAC) down $6.45.
GE (GE) lost $2.15.
Exxon Mobil (XOM) tumbling $6.59. Oil in New York trading today fell almost $11 a barrel. Exxon Mobil the victim of some heavy selling there.
And Pfizer (PFE) down $1.01.
Finally a gain at Triarc Companies (TRY), rising $0.47. The company completed the $2 billion acquisition of Wendy's International today.
Wells Fargo (WFC) down $4.06.
Triarc B (TRYb) stock up $1.32.
And then JPMorgan Chase (JPM) down $7.24 in an extremely weak banking group.
Morgan Stanley (MS) not bucking the trend, down $3.76. Mitsubishi (MTU) will acquire 21 percent stake in the company for $9 billion. Separately, Credit Suisse cut its 2008 and '09 earnings for Morgan Stanley. And the Fox-Pitt brokerage cut fourth-quarter earnings estimates from $1.03 down to $0.83 a share.
American Express (AXP) losing $6.95. Credit Suisse cut earnings estimates there. And its price target from $0.36 to $0.32 a share. This stock is almost there with today's sell-off.
Some other weak Dow stocks: Boeing (BA), and Caterpillar (CAT), Chevron (CVX), IBM (IBM), United Tech (UTX), all victims of this sell-off today.
National City Corp. (NCC) lost 63 percent of its value, plummeting $2.35. The defeat of the bailout plan in Congress could boost the company's credit losses in its mortgage portfolio.
A lot of other, smaller banks were victim to the sell-off. Mellon Bank of New York (BK) down nearly $10. Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), Keycorp (KEY), and then Northern Trust (NTRS), State Street (STT), all major losers, almost incredible one-day losses.
Walgreen (WAG) down $1.73. Fourth-quarter earnings were up 12 percent, $0.45 versus $0.40 a year ago, and a 9 percent rise in revenues. Separately the company agreed to pay $10 million to resolve Medicaid false billing allegations.
And Thor Industries (THO), a recreational vehicle manufacturer, down $1.64. The Baird brokerage downgraded it from neutral to underperform. Did the same thing with Winnebago (WGO), which fell $1.39 today.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, down nearly $23 a share. Morgan Stanley downgraded it from overweight to equal weight. RBC Capital downgraded it from outperform to just sector perform.
Google (GOOG) losing just over $50 a share today.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $2.39.
Research In Motion (RIMM) off $9.03.
And then Qualcomm (QCOM) with a gain -- a loss of nearly $6. Gains are not in today.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) off $2.03.
Intel (INTC), $1.93 loss.
Oracle (ORCL) fell $1.85.
Comcast (CMCSA) down $2.69. Oppenheimer downgraded it from peer perform to underperform.
And finally shares in Baidu.com (BIDU) slid $29.55 to an eight-month low.
