Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, February 20, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: The sellers were in command on Wall Street this morning, as rumors about bank nationalization grew. By noon, the Dow posted a 136 point loss, with the NASDAQ Composite off 10 points. As the selling heated up, the gold bugs came on strong, pushing the precious metal back above $1,000 an ounce on safe haven buying. The Dow tumbled to a 200-point loss by mid-afternoon as the nationalization rhetoric heated up some more. But stocks made a partial, late recovery after the White House said it favors a privately held banking system. So the Dow Industrial Average cut its closing loss to 100.28 points at 7365.67. In this shortened four-day trading week, it rose only once and it fell a total of 484.74 points overall. The NASDAQ fell only 1.59 points today ending at 1441.23. It declined in all four days this week, losing 93.13 points overall. Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 8.89 to 770.05 today and it fell 56.79 for the week overall. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note gained 17/32 to 99 20/32, putting the yield at 2.79 percent.
Most active big board issue tonight, 138 million shares traded was Citigroup (C) losing $0.56, traded as low as $1.61.
That was followed by Bank of America (BAC) down $0.14. As you heard, the rumors and fears are rampant about the U.S. banks being nationalized.
General Electric (GE) in there because of its GE Capital subsidiary, down $0.68.
And Wells Fargo (WFC) lost $1.10.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) off $0.70 a share.
A $0.03 drop in Sprint Nextel (S).
Co Vale do Rio (RIO) down $1.12. The story here, the Brazilian iron ore producer reported sharply lower fourth quarter products on flagging demand.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.32 loss.
ExxonMobil (XOM) down $0.93.
And then AT&T (T), finally a gainer, tenth in activity, up $0.39.
Lowes Companies (LOW) down $1.12. Fourth quarter earnings fell to only $0.11 from $0.28 a year ago. Sales on a same store basis down 9.9 percent and Lowes sees first quarter same store sales dropping 6 to 10 percent.
Chiquita Brands Intl (CQB) losing about 43 percent of its value today. Fourth quarter loss of $0.74. That's $0.54 worse than expected and that's versus earnings of $0.02 last year. The BB&T brokerage downgraded it from "buy" to just a "hold."
Then Kindred Healthcare (KND) moving up $3.23. Fourth quarter earnings higher, $0.56 versus $0.51 a year ago. Revenues up 5 percent. Standard & Poor's upgraded it from "hold" to "buy" and has a $20 a share target.
Wellcare Health Plans (WCG) losing $3 a share. The center for Medicare and Medicaid services imposed sanctions on the company's Medicare advantage plans and the company will stop marketing those plans as a result.
Actuant (ATU) off $1.94. The company says its tool sales for the two months ending January are down 23 percent from the same period a year ago.
Cabelas (CAB), this is the outdoor sporting goods company, down or up $2.10. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.74, down from $0.84 a year ago, but $0.07 better than the Street was expecting.
Group 1 Automotive (GPI) up $2.22. Wachovia upgraded it from "market perform" to "out perform," a lot of automotive replacement parts in demand these days.
And Tim Hortons (THI), the Canadian restaurant chain, up $2.02. Fourth quarter earnings came in at $0.38 Canadian, down from $0.40 a year ago, but it sees 2009 operating income growth of 11 to 13 percent. It's also boosting its quarterly dividend to $0.10, up just an 11 percent gain.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list, up $0.56.
Google (GOOG) up $3.81.
And then came Research in Motion (RIMM) down $2.94. Cleveland Research cut fourth quarter earnings estimates for RIMM from $0.83 to $0.69 on concern about flagging sales at its - of its Blackberry product.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.09 gain.
Intel (INTC) was up a dime a share.
And then Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.04 rise there.
Qualcomm (QCOM) up $0.23.
Oracle (ORCL) down $0.27.
First Solar (FSLR) managed to gain $2.71.
And Amazon.com (AMZN) up $1.91.
Career Education (CECO) had a good day, up nearly $4 a share. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.38, way up from $0.21 last year and $0.18 better than the Street expected. The company cited improving profit margins.
And finally, Morningstar (MORN), the mutual fund tracking company, down $4.53. Its fourth quarter earnings, $0.39 versus $0.41 last year. That was $0.04 below the Wall Street consensus.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
