Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, October 13, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street was off to a flying start at the opening bell, as investors welcomed the globally coordinated government response to the financial crisis. Impressive rallies overseas added to Wall Street's buying appetite. The Dow was up 572 points by midday, with the NASDAQ soaring 123. The massive surge, aided by frantic short-covering, continued right on to the final bell. So the Dow Industrial Average closed up a record 936.42 points at 9,387.61. The NASDAQ Composite vaulted 194.74 to 1,844.25. While the Standard & Poor's 500 Index soared 104.13, ending at 1,003.35. The bond market was closed for Columbus Day holiday.
Most active New York Exchange issue, trading 32.4 million shares, Citigroup (C) in the strong banking sector, up $1.64.
Joined in by Bank of America (BAC), up $1.92.
GE (GE) fell $0.50.
American International Group (AIG) edged $0.24 higher.
And then Morgan Stanley (MS) with a massive gain, up $8.42. That's 87 percent. The news, Mitsubishi (MTU) financial group has closed on a $9 billion investment in the company. That would give it a 21 percent stake in Morgan Stanley, very positive reaction to that.
General Motors -- well, let's get the second half of the active list.
Ford Motor (F) up $0.40, and incidentally, the company declined comment on reports that it has been in merger talks with GM (GM). And after the close, The Wall Street Journal reported Ford is offering major incentives for buyers of its new -- and I say, new F-150 trucks.
Pfizer (PFE) up $1.54.
Exxon Mobil (XOM) doing well on the strong energy group, up $10.72.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) edged $0.35 higher.
And then Wells Fargo (WFC) up $2.09.
General Motors (GM) up $1.62. The best percentage gainer in the Dow today. Over the weekend, apparently, the company's board gave a very cool reception to the idea of acquiring Chrysler.
United Technologies (UTX) gained $6.50. The company has withdrawn its $40 a share buyout bid for Diebold (DBD). Diebold's stock was up $0.41 at $28.69.
AT&T (T) gained $3.65. The company will sell its U-verse broadband services in Wal-Mart (WMT) and Circuit City (CC) stores.
Energy stocks very strong today. The coals like CONSOL Energy (CNX) and Massey Energy (MEE) doing very well. And big gains by Range Resources (RRC) and Weatherford International (WFT), which is an oil field services company.
And the steel stocks did very well, as did many other metal producers. AK Steel (AKS), Nucor (NUE), Steel Dynamics (STLD), Titanium (TIE), and U.S. Steel (X) all doing very well in this market.
Abbott Laboratories (ABT) up $4.76. It's going to buy back up $5 billion of its own stock. Also its drug-eluting stent has successfully treated some artery disease patients. That was encouraging.
And then Prudential Financial (PRU) up $13.82. The Fox-Pitt brokerage upgraded it from in-line to outperform because it sees a return on the company's equity in the high teens coming up in the next months.
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) up $3.68. It plans to bring in $2.5 billion to $3 billion in the fourth quarter from the sale of its 25 percent interest in the Marcellus Shale operations in Appalachia.
Big loser of the day, the women's retailer, New York & Company (NWY), off $2.98. The company had an 11 percent drop in third-quarter same-store sales, and now said that it will have a third-quarter loss of $0.08 to $0.12 a share.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL), up $13.46. Sanford Bernstein brokerage upgraded it from market perform to outperform.
Microsoft (MSFT) gaining $4. This week's Barron's noted Microsoft and Apple both have big cash holdings that would be great for bargain-priced acquisitions now.
Google (GOOG) up $49.02.
Research In Motion (RIMM) gained $8.59.
Intel (INTC), a $1.80 gainer there.
And then Baidu.com (BIDU) up $52.30, big move.
Cisco (CSCO), a $2.04 advance.
Qualcomm (QCOM) gained $3.32.
And Oracle (ORCL) up $2.18.
And completing this list of plus signs, Amgen (AMGN) up $5.22.
Those are the "Stocks in the News" tonight.
