Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, October 06, 2008
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street wasted no time in joining the steep sell-off seen on world markets overnight. The selling was sharp and swift throughout the session. By midafternoon, margin calls and a major loss of investor confidence had the Dow off 800 points and the NASDAQ down 170 points. That freefall attracted some aggressive buyers in the final hour, though, and cut the market's losses considerably. The Dow Industrial Average closed down 369.88 points at 9,955.50. The NASFAQ down 84.43, ending at 1,862.96. Standard & Poor's 500 down 42.34 at 1,056.89. Over in the bond market, the Treasuries were strong across the board. The 10-year note jumped 1 6/32 to 104 16/32, putting the yield down to 3.46 percent.
The most active Big Board issue on 40 million was General Electric (GE), down $0.19 at the close. But it traded as low as $19.70 during the day.
Then Citigroup (C) with a $0.94 loss. As you heard, Citigroup, Wells Fargo (WFC), and Wachovia (WB) are -- have agreed to a standstill until Wednesday.
Pfizer (PFE) in there with a $0.06 loss.
Companhia Vale do Rio (RIO) down $1.19.
And Dr. Pepper Snapple (DPS) in there, very active, down $0.25. The stock, of course, replacing Wrigley in the Standard & Poor's 500. So a lot of index fund activity today.
Bank of America (BAC) down $2.26. As you heard, big shortfall on earnings, and cutting the dividend in half. Also it plans a $10 billion stock offering.
Alcoa (AA) down $1.13, among other Dow losers. Alcoa's third-quarter earnings due out tomorrow. The Street estimate about $0.53 to $0.56 a share. The low today was $16.70.
Boeing (BA) in there with a $2.83 loss.
And we had Chevron (CVX) down $2.54.
IBM (IBM) off $2.82.
And Wal-Mart (WMT) even fell $1.83 to $57.90 today.
Deere & Company (DE) off $1.95. JPMorgan sees the company's lending business being hurt by lower interest rates.
Then Hartford Financial (HIG) up $3.50, a gainer. Germany insurance company Allianz (AZ) will make a $2.5 billion capital investment in Hartford, hence the nice gain.
Genentech (DNA) losing $6.02, it traded as low as $78.20 during the day on news the company's lung cancer drug, Avastin, and OSI's (OSIP) drug, Tarceva, in combination did not improve the patient's survival rate, quite a disappointment there. Southwestern Energy (SWN) losing $1.11. The story here, Standard & Poor's downgraded it from buy to sell on a valuation basis. And Goodrich Petroleum (GDP) down $5.32. Standard & Poor's downgraded that stock from hold to strong sell on valuation.
And then GAMCO Investors (GBL) up $4.22. Bill Gates' Cascade investment firm boosted the stake in this Mario Gabelli firm from 10.4 to 18.9 percent.
And then finally Avery Dennison (AVY), the office products company, got a downgrade from Credit Suisse from outperform to just neutral.
Apple (AAPL) closed up $1.07. It traded as low as $87.54 during the day.
Google (GOOG) down $15.70.
Microsoft (MSFT), $1.41 loss there.
Research In Motion (RIMM) off $1.30.
And then Cisco (CSCO) lost $0.79 a share.
eBay (EBAY) down $1.05. The company sees third-quarter revenues at the low end of its guidance. It is cutting 10 percent of its global workforce and it's acquiring several online payment companies for $1.3 billion.
And finally, ImClone (IMCL) up $1.93. It will be acquired by Eli Lilly (LLY) for $70 a share in cash. Lilly's stock dropped $2.89.
Those are the "Stocks in the News" tonight.
