Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, November 17, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Recession fears gave Wall Street a weak start as did news of big layoffs at Citigroup and uncertainty about an auto industry bailout. More about both of those in a moment. An hour into trading, the Dow posted a 225 point loss and the NASDAQ was off 30 points. With midday came a sharp rally that put the blue chips briefly higher, but traders sold aggressively into the strength late into the day and that resulted in a broadly lower close. The Dow Industrial Average ended off 223.73 points at 8273.58. The NASDAQ Composite down 34.80 at 1482.05, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 22.54 points at 850.75. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 21/32 to par and 27/32, putting the yield at 3.65 percent.
Topping the active list was Citigroup (C) on 21.7 million shares, traded as high as $8.75 and you just heard all about those massive job cuts.
Bank of America (BAC) down $1.39. The company will exercise its option to boost its stake in China construction Bancorp to a total of 19 percent.
General Electric (GE) in there with a $0.09 gain.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) down $1.70. Veteran banking analyst Dick Bovet (ph) of Ladenburg Thalman (ph) cut his price target on JPM from $45 to $37 a share.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.30 on those lower oil prices in New York.
Wachovia (WB) down $0.22.
Wells Fargo (WFC) $0.90 drop there.
Sprint Nextel (S) down $0.12.
Pfizer (PFE) fell $0.36.
Tenth in volume Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) losing $0.90 a share.
Alcoa (AA) down $1.17. UBS financial downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral" as aluminum demand globally has eased.
Then we see Disney (DIS) dropping $1.34. Soleil securities downgraded it from "buy" to "hold" and believes the company's 2009 earnings forecast is too high.
General Motors (GM) a $0.17 gain, one of the few blue chips in the plus column. The company will sell its entire stake in Suzuki Motors in order to raise $230 million in cash.
McDonald's (MCD) down $0.52, even though UBS financial upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy," did the same thing with Yum Brands which rose $0.52 a share.
And then Lowes companies (LOW), $0.76 gain, traded as high as $20. Third quarter earnings were lower, $0.33, down from $0.43 a year ago, but a nickel above the Street estimate. Standard & Poor's upgraded the stock from "hold" to "buy." Raymond James financial repeated a "strong buy."
Target (TGT) down $1.35. Third quarter earnings dropped to $0.49 from $0.56 last year, but a penny better than the Street consensus. However, same store sales in the third quarter down 3.3 percent.
A good gainer here in CTS Corp (CTS), which is in the electronic parts business, traded as high as $6.43 after JPMorgan upgraded it from "under weight" to "neutral," noting there's been some recent insider buying in the stock.
Agilent Technologies (A) down $1.63. Friday the company posted higher earnings, $0.62 versus $0.46, but the company sees first quarter revenues flat to down 4 percent from a year ago. Needham securities downgraded it from "buy" to "hold" today, saying the stock is fairly valued.
Goldman Sachs (GS) down $4.24. The "Wall Street Journal" reports top executives, including the chief executive officer will forego 2008 bonuses.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ, down $2.10.
Then Google (GOOG) losing $9.90.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.74 drop there.
And then Baidu.com (BIDU) plunging $44.80 or 25 percent on reports that the company is selling search links to medical firms making unsubstantiated claims about their products. Several analysts however said that the stock over reacted.
Research in Motion (RIMM) with a gain of $2.24.
Intel (INTC) $0.32 loss.
$0.41 drop in Cisco Systems (CSCO).
Oracle (ORCL) down $0.49.
Qualcomm (QCOM) down $1.29.
And First Solar (FSLR) posted a loss of $1.23, tenth in volume.
United Therapeutics (UTHR) plunging $31.90. That's 35 percent of its value. That was after late stage trials of its oral pulmonary arterial hypertension drug showed that patients were unable to take the full dosage due to side effects.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
