Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street moved higher early today in a technical rebound from yesterday's drubbing. After two hours of trading, the Dow was up 92 points and the NASDAQ Composite rose 14. Stocks eased over the next few hours as those bank CEO's testified on Capitol Hill. Late in the session however, the market firmed up on word of the economic stimulus deal. The Dow Industrial Average closed up 50.65 points at 7939.53. The NASDAQ Composite up 5.77 ending at 1530.50. And then the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 6.58 points to 833.74. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 14/32 to 108 14/32, pushing the yield down to 2.76 percent.
Once again the most active big board issue, trading 62.8 million shares today, Bank of America (BAC) rebounding $0.51 as did the banking sector in general rebound. Citigroup (C) up $0.34.
General Electric (GE) $0.32 advance there.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) gained $1.47.
Pfizer (PFE) in there with a $0.31 advance.
Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN), this is the first new issue of the year believe it or not. This is a unit of Bristol Myers. Thirty million shares were offered to the public at $24. Bristol Myers will still own 85 percent after the IPO. The stock opened at $26, had a high of $27.07, then closed up $2.43 from the offering price, a nice debut for that new issue.
Co Vale do Rio (RIO) $0.07 loss there.
Sprint Nextel (S) up $0.17.
Wells Fargo (WFC) in the firm banking sector, up $1.15.
Petrobras (PBR) a $0.53 advance there.
ExxonMobil (XOM) fell $1.56. The International Energy Agency said global energy demand this year will post its biggest decline since 1982. Also U.S. crude inventories were up in the latest week.
XL Capital ltd (XL), look at that percentage gainer, up over 61 percent. Fourth quarter operating earnings, $0.58, up from last year's $0.55, as lower expenses offset a 42 percent drop in revenues. Standard & Poor's upgraded the stock from "hold" to "buy," even though it's cutting its quarterly dividend by 47 percent down to $0.10 a share and also cutting its work force by 10 percent.
Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) up $1.15. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.22 below $0.29 last year, but $0.03 better than the Street was expecting.
Marsh & McLennan (MMC) did well, up $2.70. Fourth quarter earnings rose to $0.37 from $0.24 a year ago, $0.05 better than the Street was expecting there.
And Davita (DVA), which is in the kidney and dialysis business, up $5.61. Fourth quarter earnings shot up to $0.94 from $0.79 a year ago, $0.04 above the Street consensus.
Great Plains Energy (GXP) down $4.16. Fourth quarter earnings plunged only $0.06 from $0.56 last year and the company cut its 2009 guidance by $0.20 a share to $1.40 at best and also cutting a quarterly dividend in half to $0.2075 per share.
Healthspring (HS) down $2.16. Higher fourth quarter earnings of $0.51 versus $0.46 a year ago, but that was $0.03 below the Street estimate.
Research in Motion (RIMM) plunged $8.28, traded as low as $46.35 after the company said it sees fourth quarter earnings and profit margins at the low end of its previous guidance.
Apple (AAPL) down $1.01.
Google (GOOG) fell $0.47.
Microsoft (MSFT) bucking that trend, up $0.41.
No change at all in Intel (INTC) on the day.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.41 loss there.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $0.12.
Amazon.com (AMZN) gained $1.04.
Oracle (ORCL) $0.22 advance.
And First Solar (FSLR) was up $1.63.
And finally, Nvidia (NVDA) fell $1.17 after reporting a fourth quarter loss of $0.18 versus earnings of $0.49 year ago. Revenues plunged 60 percent and that loss was twice the size of analysts' estimates.
