Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, November 13, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street blue chips acted like jumping beans this morning with the Dow itself jumping over 100 points at the outset of trading, only to fall by that much at noon. Disappointment over the early rally's failure sent the Dow plunging 300 points to below the 8,000 level in early afternoon. But when the blue chips and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index failed to fall further, frenzied buyers rushed in thinking the market may have signaled a bottom. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared to a closing gain of 552.59 points, putting it at 8835.25. The NASDAQ Composite vaulted 97.49 to 1596.70, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 58.99 closing at 911.29. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 30/32 to 99 5/32, putting the yield up to 3.85 percent.
Most active big board issue on 50.4 million shares was General Electric (GE) moving up $0.57. The company said despite reports that it would cut its dividend, it will keep its $0.31 quarterly payout through all of next year as its cash flow is expected to be greater than that payout.
Meanwhile, CEO Jeff Immelt bought 50,000 shares and paid $16.42 each recently.
Citigroup (C) was down $0.19. The company's board of directors has signaled support for the current chairman, Sir Win Bishoff (ph).
Bank of America (BAC) up a dime.
And Procter & Gamble (PG) in a very strong blue chip sector, up $3.20.
And then look at ExxonMobil (XOM), up $6.48.
Let's have a look at some of the other Dow blue chips that did very well. Caterpillar (CAT), Chevron (CVX), IBM (IBM), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and 3M Co (MMM). Isn't it nice to see the gains like that for a change?
Back to the active list, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $2.62.
American International Group (AIG) edged up $0.03.
$0.29 advance in Sprint Nextel (S).
Hercules (HPC) lost $0.04.
And then Wells Fargo (WFC) up $1.79, tenth in big board volume.
Ecolab (ECL) up $3.45, very active because Henkel, the German company, is selling 67.1 million shares of Ecolab at $30.50 a share. Ecolab's agreed to buy $300 million worth of those shares.
KV Pharm. "A" (KVA), major, major loss of $8.36 a share. First the company reported a second quarter loss of $0.06 a share, preliminary basis. The Street was looking for $0.38 in earnings and on top of that, the company will delay its 10Q report due to an ongoing review by the company's audit committee.
Another major loser here, Wellcare Health Plans (WCG) plunging $10.77 or 54 percent, traded as low as $6.17. It'll be late in filing its third quarter financials due to significant changes in operating results. The company's also in default on a credit facility. Standard & Poor's cut its 2008 earnings estimate by $1.50, all the way down to $1.25 a share and also cut its price target from $23 all the way down to $10 a share.
Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) down $2.72. Lower third quarter earnings out today, $0.45 versus $0.63 last year, $0.06 below the Street estimate. The company sees 2008 sales up only 1 percent.
Progressive Corp (PGR), the insurance company, up $2.92. Citigroup says the stock may be close to a bottom, upgraded it from "sell" to a "hold."
Most active NASDAQ stock, Apple (AAPL) up $6.32, participating in the rally.
Google (GOOG) did well, up over $21 a share.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.95 gain.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $0.60. This morning, it was down as low as $38.55 after Goldman Sachs removed it from its favorite growth list, but the company's CEO later on said the Blackberry (INAUDIBLE) product is selling very well and Research in Motion responded with a gain.
Intel (INTC) $0.91 gain despite yesterday's downward revision in fourth quarter revenue.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.71 advance.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $6.88.
Oracle (ORCL) up $1.25.
First Solar (FSLR) rose $15.25.
Qualcomm (QCOM) up $2.25 a share.
And finally, Amag Pharmaceuticals (AMAG), look at that gain, almost $19 or 103 percent. The FDA is satisfied with the company's additional information regarding its anemia drug and that gives it a good chance of getting FDA approval next months.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
