Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Strength in European markets boosted Wall Street in early trading today. The Dow was up 130 points 30 minutes into the session, with the NASDAQ up 29 points. The market backed down as investors weighed bigger than expected declines in November pending home sales and new factory orders. At noon, the Dow was up just 30 points. Then the blue chips rebounded with a 130-point gain at 3:00 p.m., only to give half of it back by the closing bell. The Dow Industrial Average ended up 62.21 points at 9015.10. The NASDAQ gained 24.35 ending at 1,652.38. while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose exactly 7.25 points to 934.70. In the bond market, the 10-year note rose 7/32 to 111 10/32, putting the yield at 2.45 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue on 20.4 million shares, Bank of America (BAC) edging up $0.30. CEO Ken Lewis is going to forego any year- end bonus. Also Bank America is seeking to sell $2.8 billion worth of China construction bank stock. That would cut its stake from 19 percent down to 16.6 percent.
Citigroup (C) in there with a $0.38 advance.
General Electric (GE) moved up $0.23.
SprintNextel (S) $0.20 gain.
Compania Vale (RIO) up $1.01, fifth in volume.
Then Pfizer (PFE) down $0.36.
Followed by Petrobras (PBR) was up $1.25.
Wells Fargo (WFC) a $0.52 loss.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) up $0.63.
And then ExxonMobil (XOM) with a loss of $1.33.
Dow Chemical Co (DOW) gained one point, very active today. The company plans to mend the damage from the recent collapse of a $17 billion joint venture with Kuwaiti Petrochemical. It'll do it through legal remedies. The deal would have provided Dow with $9 billion toward its acquisition of U.S. rival Rohm & Haas and that deal has to close this week or Dow will face penalties. Rohm & Haas stock today down $2.28, closing at $61.54 a share.
The life insurance stocks today were firm after the (INAUDIBLE) brokerage said it sees a 2009 recovery in these stock valuations as investor confidence returns. Genworth Financial (GNW), Hartford Financial (HIG), Lincoln National (LNC) and Prudential Financial (PRU) all posting decent percentage gains.
Lab Corp. of American Hldg (LH) down $4.26. The company cut its 2009 earnings guidance from a high of $5.25 to $4.95 a share at best.
Then the big steel company, Nucor (NUE) off $1.75. UBS financial downgraded it from "buy" to "neutral."
However on the upside, Western Union (WU) gained $1.24 after Morgan Keegan brokerage upgraded it from "market perform" to "out perform."
Arvinmeritor (ARM), the auto parts maker, up $1.28. That's a big percentage, 48 percent nearly. The company's cutting pay for 100 of its senior executives including the CEO.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) down $10.41. Both UBS financial and Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock from "buy" to "neutral" in the belief the company's OTC commission growth will be limited this year.
Volume leader on NASDAQ, Apple (AAPL) down $1.56, even though Oppenheimer upgraded it from "market perform" to "out perform" and the company reportedly got a rather cool reception for its final appearance at Mac World.
Google (GOOG) up $6.01.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $3.31.
Microsoft (MSFT) gained $0.24.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.68.
Intel (INTC) $0.46 advance.
First Solar (FSLR) fell $4.09.
Amazon.com (AMZN) doing well, up $3.30.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.70 gain.
And then Celgene (CELG) down $3.89. The Baird brokerage cut its rating from "out perform" to "neutral," saying the growth prospects for its blood cancer drug, which Baird thinks are too high and that's what hurt the stock today.
Indevus Pharmaceuticals (IDEV), look at that percentage gain. Endo Pharmaceuticals is offering to acquire this company for $4.50 a share cash and will pay another $3 a share if certain conditions are met within Indevus' testosterone boosting treatment.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
