Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: A steep opening sell-off greeted Wall Street this morning, triggered by a 5.3 percent drop in January existing home sales. At 11:00 a.m., the Dow posted a 175 point loss with the NASDAQ Composite off 32 points. Then after some details of the bank stress test came out this afternoon, the market moved briefly into positive ground only to pull back by the closing bell. The Dow Industrial Average ended down 80.05 points at 7270.89. The NASDAQ Composite lost 16.40 at 1425.43, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 8.24 at 764.90. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note fell 1 2/32 to 98 15/32, putting the yield up to 2.93 percent.
Most active big board issue trading 103 million shares, Weatherford Intl (WFT) up a penny. Shareholders today approved the company's re- domesticating to Switzerland.
Bank of America (BAC) up $0.43.
Citigroup (C) dropped $0.08.
General Electric (GE) $0.07 loss there.
But JPMorgan Chase (JPM) was up $0.71.
Wells Fargo (WFC) gained $0.39.
Pfizer (PFE) lost $0.51.
Co Vale do Rio (RIO) down $0.08.
And then ExxonMobil (XOM) dropped $0.04 a share.
Sprint Nextel (S) edged a penny higher.
Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold (FCX) up $1.33. Today the Credit Suisse brokerage boosted its price target for the stock to $50 a share.
Lincoln National (LNC) down $1.83. The company's cutting its quarterly dividend from $0.21 all the way down to just $0.01 per share.
And another dividend cut by Allstate (ALL), cutting its quarterly dividend from $0.41 down to $0.20, more than half.
CF Industries (CF), which is in the fertilizer business, up $6.19. Agrium Corporation is bidding $31.70 a share in cash plus one Agrium share for each CF share. Today that's a value of $68.27 a share for CF holders. Agrium stock fell $3.73 to $36.57 and the deal depends on CF's dropping its buyout bid for Terra Industries.
Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) down $2.29. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.72, up from $0.46 last year, but it suspends its $0.16 quarterly dividend and sees 2009 earnings at $2 a share at the high end and that's $0.15 below the Street estimate.
JM Smucker (SJM) down $2.45, higher earnings third quarter, $0.88, up from $0.79 last year, but it reduced its 2009 sales estimate from $4 billion to $3.7 billion due to the weak outlook for the peanut butter market.
Herbalife Ltd (HLF) down $3.81, $0.53 in fourth quarter earnings, down from $0.77 last year, 11 percent drop in sales and the company cut its 2009 earnings guidance by $0.10 a share.
Dreamworks Animation (DWA) down $2.14, $0.58 in fourth quarter earnings, well down from $0.98 last year, a 31 percent drop in revenues.
And finally the big gas distribution company Nicor (GAS) down, up $3.08. Fourth quarter earnings of $1.05, down from last year's $1.22, but $0.38 better than expected. Standard & Poor's came out with a "buy" on the stock.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) up $0.91.
Google (GOOG) $3.81 drop.
Microsoft (MSFT) fell $0.21.
First Solar (FSLR) plunging $30.03. Fourth quarter earnings $1.61, way up from $0.77 last year, but the company said the short-term outlook for solar stocks and the industry in general has never looked more difficult. Standard & Poor's downgraded this stock from "buy" to "hold."
Intel (INTC) $0.30 gain there. That was fifth in volume.
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $0.75.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.22 loss.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.40 drop.
Amazon.com (AMZN) fell $1.89.
And Oracle (ORCL) a $0.20 loss there.
Applied Signal (APSG) up $1.73. Stiffel financial issued a "buy" recommendation with a $25 a share target.
And finally, Wynn Resorts (WYNN) tumbled $4.05 after reporting sharply lower fourth quarter earnings of $0.07 per share down from $0.72 a year ago on a 14 percent drop in revenues. The company cited lower gaming volume.
