Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, December 11, 2008
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PAUL KANGAS: That big jump in new jobless benefit claims prompted an opening sell- off on Wall Street as investors were reminded the economy is in recession. The Dow fell 45 points early on and the NASDAQ lost 10 points. Stocks were narrowly mixed over the next few hours, but they took a turn for the worse this afternoon as concerns about that stalled auto rescue bill mounted. By the final bell, the market was near the day's lowest levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed off 196.33 points at 8565.09. The NASDAQ ended off 57.60 at 1507.88, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 25.65 at 873.59. In the bond market, the 10-year note gained 26/32 to 109 31/32, putting the yield down to 2.61 percent.
Most active big board issue on 25.8 million shares, Citigroup (C) losing $0.73. The company and UBS finalized an SEC settlement regarding that they misled investors in the freeze (ph) of the auction rate securities market earlier. Citigroup will buy back seven billion of those securities and UBS will buy 22.7 billion.
Moving along, we see Bank of America (BAC), we heard they're laying off a lot of people.
Then came Pfizer (PFE) with a penny loss.
General Electric (GE) down $0.95.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) off $3.58. UBS financial cut its fourth quarter earnings estimate from $0.33 to only $0.15 a share.
Moving along in the actives, Wells Fargo (WFC) down $3.29.
Petrobras (PBR) up $0.81 as oil jumped over $4 a barrel.
And then we see Ford (F) with a $0.35 loss.
ExxonMobil (XOM) losing $0.05 despite the rise in oil.
And AT&T (T) $0.14 loss, tenth in volume.
Sprint Nextel (S) down $0.34, although that's a 14 percent drop. Moody's downgraded the company's senior unsecured debt rating from BAA3 to BA2.
Then Eli Lilly (LLY) moving up $0.61, traded a buck higher than what you see there. It reaffirmed its 2008 earnings guidance of $3.97 to $4.02 and sees 2009 up to as high as $4.55.
Gildan Activewear (GIL), one of the big losers, off 35 percent with that loss of nearly $5. The company had a sharp drop in fourth quarter earnings to $0.18 from $0.38 last year. Higher costs (INAUDIBLE) 27 percent rise in sales.
American Equity Investment (AEI), look at that plunge, almost 24 percent, down $1.71. Raymond James financial downgraded it from "strong buy" to just an "out perform."
And then Greif (GEF), which is into industrial packaging, had fourth quarter earnings higher, $1.27 versus $1.05, but it sees 2009 at $3.75 at best and the Wall Street estimate is up at $4.40, still nice gain in the stock.
Dine Equity (DIN) down $2.18. The company's suspending its $0.25 quarterly dividend.
NASDAQ's most active Apple (AAPL) down $3.21.
Google (GOOG) $8.60 loss.
Microsoft (MSFT) off $1.16.
Baidu.com (BIDU) up $6.76 even though the company cut its fourth quarter revenue forecast.
Intel (INTC) $0.26 drop there.
And then Cisco (CSCO) $0.42 loss.
Qualcomm (QCOM) fell $1.88.
Oracle (ORCL) a $0.93 drop.
Research in Motion (RIMM) off $0.97. It's going to acquire Chalk Media Corp. for $23.1 million in Canadian funds.
And then Costco (COST) down $1.63. First quarter earnings out today, $0.60, up from $0.59, but $0.15 below the Wall Street estimate.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
