Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, December 05, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street started the day with a sharp sell-off on that massive jump in unemployment. Just ahead of noon, the Dow was off over 250 points, while the NASDAQ had fallen 32 points. The market stabilized and began improving by early afternoon as buyers took command on hopes for a huge stimulus program, triggering an economic recovery. That resulted in sharp closing gains. The Dow Industrial Average jumped 259.18 points to 8635.42. It rose three times, fell twice this week for a net loss of 193.62 points. The NASDAQ Composite gained 63.75 points exactly today at 1509.31. It also rose three times and fell twice this week, losing 26.26 points overall. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed up 30.85 at 876.07 today and for the week, it fell 20.17. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note lost 1 14/32 to 109 even and that put the yield at 2.71 percent.
Most active big board issue on 28 3/4 million shares was Bank of America (BAC) moving up $0.90. Its shareholders approved the acquisition of Merrill Lynch today.
General Electric (GE) a $0.30 gain.
Similar rise in Citigroup (C).
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $2.27.
ExxonMobil (XOM), fifth in volume was up $0.33 despite the drop in oil prices.
Pfizer (PFE) gained $0.28.
AT&T (T) losing $0.02.
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.03 gain.
Wells Fargo (WFC) did well, up $2.39.
Co Vale do Rio (RIO), the big Brazilian oil, down, up $0.17.
Boeing Co (BA) was a $0.34 gainer although the company said it may have to delay deliveries of the first 787 Dreamliners by at least six months because of the recent machinists' strike.
Cummins (CMI), the big diesel maker, up $0.68. The company is going to cut 500 jobs. That's 3.5 percent of its work force.
Sonoco Products Co (SON), which is in the packaging products business, down $1.53. The company cut its previous fourth quarter guidance of $0.60 to $0.64 a share in earnings down to $0.48 to $0.52 a share.
Oil producer Berry Petroleum (BRY) down $2.09, big percentage drop there. The Morgan Keegan brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to just a "market perform" rating.
Oil as you saw earlier hit a 47-month low and other oil stocks were sharply lower. Here are a few samples. Apache (APA), Hess (HES), Swift Energy Co and Whiting Petroleum (WLL) all down significantly.
And then the liquor distiller Brown Foreman (BF.B) doing well, up $4.22. Second quarter earnings rose to $0.94 from $0.83 a year ago. Sales were up 4.6 percent and the company plans to buy back up to $250 million of its own stock over the next 12 months.
Safeway (SWY), the big grocery chain, up $2.27. UBS financial upgraded it from "neutral" to a "buy."
And discounter Big Lots (BIG) was down $0.28, but traded as low as $13.64 today. It reported higher third quarter earnings of $0.15, up from $0.14 last year, but a penny below the Street estimate and total sales were flat. The company on top of that cut its full year expectations.
And then DineEquity (DIN) up $3.64. This used to be called Ihop and it's the restaurant chain. The news today, Southeastern Asset Management said it owns an 18.4 percent stake in DineEquity.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, up $2.59.
Google (GOOG) did well, up $9.65.
Microsoft (MSFT) edging up $0.76.
$0.52 rise in Intel (INTC).
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.61 gain there.
Oracle (ORCL) was up $0.88.
Research in Motion (RIMM) rose $2.29.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $1.82 advance.
$0.94 rise in Amazon.com (AMZN).
But Baidu.com (BIDU) down $5.43.
Elsewhere, Gilead Sciences (GILD) up $1.84. Baird Research sees a rally coming in large cap biotech stocks. This might be the beginning.
And then Orexigen Therapeutics (OREX) down $1.89, a huge percentage drop, 35 percent. The news, the company halted mid-stage trials for two of its obesity drugs to conserve cash and on top of that, the company's CEO resigned for health reasons.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
