Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, December 01, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street opened sharply lower on reports of steep manufacturing slowdowns in Europe and China. In a steady slide, last week's solid gains quickly slipped away with the Dow plummeting 455 points by 1:00 p.m. when the NASDAQ was off 95 points. The sell-off worsened on reports of weak U.S. manufacturing and construction spending. Less than optimistic speeches from Fed chief Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Paulson put stocks into a late freefall. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 679.95 points, ending at 8149.09. The NASDAQ tumbled 137 1/2 points to 1398.07, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 80.03 points to 816.21. In the bond market, the 10-year note soared 1 22/32 to 108 25/32, putting the yield at 2.73 percent.
Big board volume leader as it so often is, Citigroup (C) today on 44.3 million shares, down $1.84 in a hard-hit banking group.
And then came Ford Motor Co (F) with a loss of $0.14 after trading as low as $2.02. You heard the news.
More weak banks, Bank of America (BAC) for example down $3.40.
And then General Electric (GE) fell $1.67. Merrill Lynch cut GE's earnings forecast because of the global business slowdown.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) losing $5.54. The company is planning on cutting 9200 jobs at its Washington Mutual unit which it just recently acquired.
Wells Fargo (WFC) down $5.48.
ExxonMobil (XOM) on that over $5 drop in oil prices in New York, off $5.84.
Pfizer (PFE) fell $1.15.
AT&T (T) losing $1.60.
And then General Motors (GM) down $0.65. The company's trying frantically to come up with a feasible survival plan.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) down $1.84 even though the company said it can save possibly up to $1 billion annually by cutting back on its information technology staff.
The other 29 stocks in the Dow were all down and these are some of the worst losers. American Express (AXP), Caterpillar (CAT), Chevron (CVX), IBM (IBM) and 3M Co (MMM) all hard hit in this sell off.
Morgan Stanley (MS) fell $3.40. Credit Suisse cut fourth quarter estimates to a loss of $0.35 a share.
And then Goldman Sachs (GS) tumbling $13.23. Credit Suisse projects a fourth quarter loss for Goldman of $4 a share and both Morgan Stanley and Goldman are cutting back on their Dubai-based work forces, think (ph) they're hitting over there too.
Dow Chemical Co (DOW) down $0.62. Standard & Poor's downgraded it from "buy" to a "sell."
Freeport-McMoran C&G (FCX), February gold in New York tumbled $42.20 an ounce and on top of that, China's economic slowdown is causing a slump in copper demand, so a one-two punch for Freeport.
A gainer and a big one, Mentor (MNT), the implant company, up $14.43. Johnson & Johnson will acquire it for $31 a share in cash. J&J stock fell $3.25 to $55.33.
And what's this, another gainer, Premiere Global Services (PGI). The company's in the business, support services area and Oppenheimer upgraded it from "perform" to "out perform."
Then we see the fertilizer company Mosaic (MOS) tumbling $4.95 in regular trading and it fell to as low as $23 after the close when the company warned its fertilizer sales will drop for the next two quarters.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $3.74.
Google (GOOG) got hit for almost a $27 loss.
Microsoft (MSFT) off $1.61. Incidentally, a Microsoft executive says reports that his firm is in talks to acquire Yahoo!'s search business, those reports, total fiction.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $2.67.
Then came Cisco Systems (CSCO) with a loss of $1.58.
We continue this blizzard of minus signs with Oracle (ORCL) down $0.62.
Intel (INTC) off $1.24. October semiconductor sales globally fell 2.4 percent, according to the industry association.
Amgen (AMGN) down $0.77.
Qualcomm (QCOM) fell $3.61.
Baidu.com (BIDU) off a little over $19.57.
Finally, parent of United Airlines UAL Corp (UAUA) tumbling $2.31. The company plans a $200 million offering of common stock.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
