Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, February 27, 2009
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: The big drop in fourth quarter GDP and the Citigroup news had Wall Street heading south near the opening today. The Dow fell about 150 points at the outset while the NASDAQ dropped 20 points. But then the market managed to rebound a bit by midday despite that sharp dividend cut planned by General Electric. Afternoon brought a lot of pre-weekend selling pressure, so stocks ended near the day's lows. The Dow Industrial Average closed off 119.15 at 7062.93. This week, it rose only one and fell 302.74 points overall. The NASDAQ Composite lost 13.63 to 1377.84 today. It also rose only one this week and it fell 63.39 points overall. Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended down 17.74 points at 735.09 today. It lost 34.96 points for the overall week. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note dropped 6/32 to 97 22/32, lifting the yield to 3.02 percent.
Far and away the big board's most active issue on 280 million shares was Citigroup (C) dropping $0.96 or about 40 percent of its value, traded as low as $1.40 today. As you heard, the government is planning to take up to a 36 percent stake. That means severe dilution for existing shareholders and no dividend forthcoming.
Bank of America (BAC) down $1.37 on fear of nationalizing the banks.
General Electric (GE) down $0.59. As you heard, it plans to cut its quarterly dividend from $0.31 down to only $0.10 a share starting in the third quarter of this year.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.39 drop there.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) lost $0.20.
Wells Fargo (WFC) $2.30 drop in the weak banking group.
ExxonMobil (XOM) fell $3.05.
Sprint Nextel (S) down $0.19.
Co Vale do Rio (RIO) down a nickel.
And Regions Financial (RF) down $0.52, tenth in big board volume.
SLM Corp (SLM), the old student loan marketing down $1.20. It was off $2.59 yesterday. That's a 31 percent drop alone and the possibility there, it exists that private lenders will be eliminated from the student loan market and that would hurt this company's earnings obviously.
Life insurance stocks, particularly weak today after Standard & Poor's cut counter party (ph) credit and financial strength ratings on these stocks among others: Conseco (CNO), Hartford Financial (HIG), Lincoln National (LNC), Metlife (MET), Protective Life (PL) all big percentage losers today.
Continental Air (CAL) dropping $0.76, traded as low as $9.41. JPMorgan downgraded the airline sector's credit rating to "neutral."
World Fuel Services (INT), which is in the aircraft refueling business, did well today. After the close yesterday, fourth quarter earnings, $0.98 up from $0.63 a year ago and the company will double its quarterly dividend to $0.075 a share.
Petrohawk Energy (HK) losing $1.58. The company's making preparations for a 22 million share public offering of common stock. That represents earnings dilution.
Calgon Carbon (CCC) moving up $2. The company just about doubled its fourth quarter earnings to $0.14 from $0.08 a year ago and sales were up 8 percent.
Republic Services (RSG) down $1.94. The company reported a fourth quarter loss of $0.55 a share and that includes the cost of acquiring Allied Waste Corporation.
Packaging Corp of America (PKG) down $1.96. The company is slashing its quarterly dividend from $0.30 down to only $0.15 a share, a 50 percent cut.
Covanta Holdings (CVA), which is in the waste to energy business, down $1.44. Fourth quarter earnings, $0.22, down from $0.25 a year ago. That was $0.03 lower than the Street was expecting.
And Commscope (CTV) had a rough day, down $4.21. Fourth quarter earnings a bit higher, $0.55 versus $0.51 a year ago, but the company sees a challenging business condition ahead and sees first quarter loss. The Street was expecting a profit at $0.46 a share.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, up $0.12.
Google (GOOG) $0.81 advance.
Microsoft (MSFT) down $0.27.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) $0.08 gain.
Amgen (AMGN) in the weak health care group, down $2.30.
Intel (INTC) $0.03 gain.
$0.23 loss in Qualcomm (QCOM).
Research in Motion (RIMM) up $0.40.
Oracle (ORCL) a $0.24 drop.
Amazon.com (AMZN) did well, rising $2.45.
Synta Pharmaceuticals (SNTA) plunging about 78 3/4 percent with that loss of $5.03. The company is suspending its late stage trials of its skin cancer treatment due to safety concerns.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
