Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks headed lower at the opening today, but didn't end that way. The Dow fell 175 points at the outset of trading and the NASDAQ lost 31 points amid forecasts for sharp drops in November employment and a report of a weak November service sector. The dip attracted buyers though and by noon, the blue chips were up 121 points. That bearish beige book report sent the Dow off 100 points in mid-afternoon. But once again buyers moved in, sending the market to a higher close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 172.60 points at 8591.69. The NASDAQ Composite was up 42.58 ending at 1492.38. Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 21.93 to 870.74. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 14/32 to 109 18/32, putting the yield all the way down to 2.65 percent.
Topping the active list once again today on 27.8 million shares, Citigroup (C) edging up $0.60, but that's an 8.3 percent advance.
General Electric (GE) up $0.52.
Bank of America (BAC) gained exactly $1.
American International Group (AIG) edging up $0.14.
And Ford Motor Co. (F) on hopes that there will be an auto bailout, up $0.15.
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) gained $2.21.
$0.60 advance in Pfizer (PFE).
ExxonMobil (XOM) rising $1.32.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) $1.72 advance there.
And AT&T (T) was up $1.04, tenth in big board volume.
Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold (FCX) down $3.77. The company's cutting its copper production by 200 million pounds next year because of a sharp drop in copper prices and demand for it. It'll also suspend its $2 a share annual dividend and today Standard & Poor's downgraded the stock from "buy" to "sell."
Schlumberger Ltd (SLB), the big oil service company, down $1.39, traded as low as $38.64 today after the company said its 2008 earnings will be below Wall Street expectations due to the global economic slowdown. This affected other oil service stocks.
Let's have a look at some of the other biggies. Baker Hughes (BHI), Smith International (SII) and Transocean (RIG) all on the negative side today after the Schlumberger news.
Constellation Energy (CEG) up $2.55. Electricity of France Corporation proposed to acquire a 50 percent stake in the company's nuclear generation business for $4.5 billion and then there are other (INAUDIBLE)
Rio Tinto Plc (RTP), the big mining company, down $10.79, traded as low as $64.43 today. Standard & Poor's downgraded it a "strong buy" to a "buy" on the company's lower earnings outlook. Last week, that's a week ago yesterday, that stock was down $40 a share after DHP Billiton backed out of its all stock buyout offer for Rio Tinto.
Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) losing $1.81. The company cut its 2008 earnings guidance and Standard & Poor's cut its price target for the next 12 months from $25 to $19 a share.
Then Nexen (NXY) losing $1.49. The Canadian oil and gas producer down on news that the big French petroleum company Total has decided against bidding for Nexen.
And Polypore International (PPO) rose $1.42, over a 33 percent gain there. The company's Celgard unit got a $2.3 million contract to develop technology for lithium ion batteries for hybrid vehicles.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $3.43.
Research in Motion (RIMM) gaining $1.64.
Google (GOOG) up $4.32.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.72 advance.
And Oracle (ORCL) was up $0.34.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.69. As we touched on earlier, CEO John Chambers says no job layoffs are planned, despite the economic downturn.
Intel (INTC) $0.38 gain there.
First Solar (FSLR) up $17.60.
Qualcomm (QCOM) fell $0.24.
And Amazon.com (AMZN) rising $4.02. On cyber Monday, according to ComScore, online retail spending was up 15 percent over a year ago.
And finally, we see shares of Onco-Genex Pharmaceuticals (OGXI) surging $1.70, huge percentage gain. Mid-stage trials of its prostate cancer treatment in combination with certain chemotherapy drugs was shown to improve survival rates by up to a year compared to patients treated with just those chemotherapy drugs.
