Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, January 02, 2009
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JEFF YASTINE: Today's rally marked the highest closing price for the Dow in about two months. The Dow ran up 150 points in the first half of the session. Investors ignored the latest report on factory orders, which fell for the fifth consecutive month to the lowest reading in 28 years. Energy stocks and big cap technology shares helped both indexes advance through the remainder of the session. The Dow settled up 258.3 to close at 9,034.69 and the Index rose in three of the last four trading sessions for a week overall gain of 519.14 and the NASDAQ Composite rising 55.18 to end at 1632.21. Like the Dow, the Index marched higher from Tuesday on (INAUDIBLE) a gain of 101.97 points for the week. And the S&P 500 jumping 28.55 to 931.80 and for the week, it picked up 59 points. And bond prices fell sharply, investors redeploying their safe- haven cash for New Year buys in the stock market. The 10-year note gaining, excuse me, falling 1 9/32 to 112 7/32 and the yield now up to 2.35 percent.
Citigroup (C) rising $0.43. Bottom fishing in some of the laggards of 2008.
Bank of America (BAC) ending up $0.25. The banking giant swallowing Merrill Lynch yesterday. Today's "Journal" noting the challenges ahead for integrating the cultures of a commercial bank and an investment bank in the face of this recession.
General Electric (GE) up $0.87. Volume though, pretty light, about 60 million shares are so.
ExxonMobil (XOM) gaining $1.81 with oil prices rising somewhat today.
And then Pfizer (PFE) gaining $0.56.
Wells Fargo (WFC) tacking on $0.52. Financials generally lagging today's advance and of course they also swallowed Wachovia yesterday, closing that deal.
JPMmorgan Chase (JPM) up $0.20.
AT&T (T) rising $0.92.
And then Ford Motor Co (F) up $0.17. The auto maker expecting 2008 industry-wide sales to drop by three billion units and that would douse hopes for a recovery certainly in the first quarter.
Compania Vale (RIO) jumping $1.08 thanks to a strong mining group today.
And then General Motors (GM) revving up $0.45. Its GMAC unit will no longer be the auto maker's primary choice for financing GM vehicles at the dealerships. Under the Federal bailout, GM will have to open up to outside lenders for low-interest loans and incentives and this ends their exclusive deal between GM and GMAC about seven years ahead of schedule.
And a look now (ph) at other blue chips getting cherry picked as the new year gets underway, Alcoa (AA), Boeing (BA), Chevron (CVX), Home Depot (HD), Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), all coming in for a nice round of buying.
Starwood Hotels (HOT) charged higher by almost $3. The company signed a confidentiality agreement with its largest shareholder Sam Zell. Analysts believe Zell lost nearly half a billion dollars on his shares last year in the decline, but could be weighing options to double down, boost his faith in the company even higher.
And that news buoying other hotel and casino operators, Las Vegas Sands (LVS), MGM Mirage (MGM), Wyndham Worldwide (WYN) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN) all doing quite nicely today after being beaten down in that second half of the year.
And another mining concern, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold (FCX) rising more than $2. Analysts say the mining giant may be poised for a rebound as potential bankers primed (ph) their economies for a global rebound.
On the NASDAQ, Apple (AAPL) rising more than $5. The latest survey of browsing market share shows an 8 percent Internet users now surf with Apple Safari (ph) browser.
Google (GOOG) climbing more than $13. Their (INAUDIBLE) browser has about 1 percent of all Internet users.
Microsoft (MSFT) picking up $0.89. Internet Explorer continues to lose market share, about 8 percentage points over the past year and also rumors on the web that Microsoft may be considering its first ever layoffs in the history of the company, up to 15,000 people perhaps in the next few weeks if web rumors are to be believed.
Intel (INTC) rising $0.54.
Then Cisco Systems (CSCO) advancing $0.66.
First Solar (FSLR) up more than $13.50. Piper Jaffray lowering its first quarter estimate on the range of solar power, solar panel companies.
And then Qualcomm (QCOM) jumped $1.22.
Oracle (ORCL) up $0.68.
Research in Motion (RIMM) gaining $1.34.
CME Group (CME) up $4.47.
And finally, Amazon.com (AMZN) rising more than $3. The online retailer faring very well in sales behind Wal-Mart over the holidays and this is the highest close for that stock since November 4th.
Those are our stocks in the news tonight.
