Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, October 10, 2008
|
|
|
|
JEFF YASTINE: Well, Wall Street needed a neck-brace after today's whipsaw action. The Dow touched a five-year intraday low of 7,882, falling roughly 700 points early on. Shares of Dow component Exxon (XOM) lost 13 percent as oil prices fell nearly $9 or about 10 percent to $77.70 a barrel. Now GM (GM) and Ford (F) lent support to the market, denying any talk of bankruptcy. And that set the stage for a late rally as buyers nibbled on select blue chip shares. But that rally was volatile, changing direction 16 times, you know, positive and negative, in the last 30 minutes of trading. So the Dow went on to close down 128 to 8,451.19. And for the week, it was a torturous drop of 1,874, 1,874 points, or 18 percent. The NASDAQ eked out a gain of 4.39 points today to 1,649. And this week the NASDAQ lost 297.88 points, or 15 percent. And the S&P 500 fell 10.70 to 899.20. And it was off a little over 200 points on the week overall, again, about 18 percent. In the bond market, the 10-year note lost 24/32 to 101 even, that puts the yield at 3.88 percent.
Starting things off we have GE (GE), which gained $2.49 for the day, but early on it was down to $18.40 at the lows. Profits from continuing operations fell 12 percent to $0.45 a share. That was in-line with estimates. GE Capital, of course, profits there falling 33 percent. Jeff Immelt claims GE will meet this year's profit forecast.
There is Citigroup (C) gaining a $1.18. It says it will continue to seek $60 billion in legal damages from Wachovia (WB), Wells Fargo (WFC), after deciding yesterday not to block their merger plans.
AIG (AIG) down a fraction.
Bank of America (BAC), part of a mixed group of financials. This one gaining today, up $1.24.
And then Exxon Mobil (XOM) skidded $5.64.
And investors dumping energy stocks after oil dropped to $0.77 and change today on all of those worries about a slowing energy demand. Anadarko (APC), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), Marathon Oil (MRO), Occidental Petroleum (OXY), all dropping quite markedly during the day. But off their lows at the end of the session.
Morgan Stanley (MS) shedding $2.77. Moody's threatened to downgrade Morgan Stanley's debt rating, adding more fuel to the fire this morning. And others worry that the Mitsubishi (MTU) investment, $9 billion, will not help tide the firm through the crisis.
Then we have Pfizer (PFE) down a little over half a dollar.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) gaining nearly $5, the Dow's big gainer after an intraday low of $35.
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) down $1.19. The CEO disclosing the liquidations of his holdings to meet margin calls.
Then Wells Fargo (WFC) up $1.06 today.
GM (GM) eked out a gain of $0.13. GM says bankruptcy is not an option while the head of Ford (F) echoed GM's pledge. And then the slaughter spilled over precious metals producers, December gold sliding $27.50 an ounce. And that is something investors reacted rather severely to. And you see there the gold stocks: Agnico Eagle (AEM), Barrick Gold (ABX), Goldcorp (GG), Newmont Mining (NEM), all down significantly for the day and settling near their lows.
Then Macy's (M) fell $1.54. The retailing giant taking a knife to its profit projections in anticipation of potentially bleak holiday shopping season. I guess no surprise there.
And then we have NASDAQ, Apple (AAPL) rising $8.06. Apple one of the few bright spots in today's market. The company set to unveil new laptops with a retail price below that of its current laptop -- or PowerBook offerings.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.80, back to its 2003 levels after today's plunge.
And then Google (GOOG) gaining $3.02, reports earnings next Thursday.
Research In Motion (RIMM) dropping $3.75. One analyst things Microsoft (MSFT) may move to buy Research In Motion now that those shares are discounted by about 65 percent since June.
Intel (INTC) off $0.41.
And our last four here, Cisco (CSCO) rising $0.04.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $0.70.
And then we have Oracle (ORCL) up $0.47. Larry Ellison says it may be time to start doing acquisitions again.
Comcast (CMCSA) dropping nearly a dollar.
And Amazon (AMZN) rounding it out, gaining a quarter on the day.
And those are our "Stocks in the News" tonight.
