Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Monday, March 02, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street followed other world markets sharply lower today as investors reacted to the mess at AIG. In a steady, grinding and unforgiving sell off, the Dow plunged 250 points to the 6800 level by 1:00 p.m. as the NASDAQ Composite tumbled 45 points. Without so much as a decent hint of a rebound, the market extended its free fall for the rest of the session, closing at the day's lowest level. The Dow Industrial Average plummeted 299.64 points to 6763.29. The NASDAQ Composite tumbled 54.99 to 1322.85, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 34.27 points, ending at 700.82. There was plenty of safe haven buying in the bond market. The 10- year note gained 1 10/32 to 99 1/32, putting the yield at 2.86 percent.
By far the most active on a per share basis was Citigroup (C) trading 225 million shares and losing 20 percent of its value with that loss of $0.30. Deutsche Bank says despite the U.S. government's huge cash infusion, Citigroup may need to raise even more capital.
Then Bank of America (BAC) with a $0.32 loss. CEO Ken Lewis says he'll stay on the job until his bank pays back the $45 billion in TARP infusion.
General Electric (GE) down $0.91.
Wells Fargo (WFC) $1.26 loss.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in the weak banking group, down $1.69.
Pfizer (PFE) fell $0.65.
ExxonMobil (XOM) losing nearly $3. Oil in New York dropped about $4.61 a barrel to just above $40.
Co Vale do Rio (RIO) down $0.95.
Motorola (MOT) fell $0.14.
And then Dow Chemical (DOW) with a $0.22 loss.
Moving along, HSBC Holdings ADR (HBC), the world's largest bank, tumbling $6.55. The company did post a 2008 profit of $9.3 billion at $0.47 a share, but that's down 72 percent from the year earlier and the company plans to cut its 2009 cash dividend to $0.64 a share. That's a drop of 29 percent. It also plans an $18 billion rights offering.
PNC Financial Services (PNC) down $1.22. It's planning on cutting its quarterly dividend from $0.66 to only $0.10 and what that yields that you see there will no longer be 9.6 percent. It'll be more like 1.5 percent.
A dividend cut by International Paper (IP) which dropped $0.57. It's cutting its quarterly by 90 percent from $0.25 to only 2.5 percent. Standard & Poor's downgraded the stock from "buy" to "hold." The new dividend will be 1 1/2 percent.
Newmont Mining (NEM) down $3.75. JPMorgan downgraded it from "over weight" to just a "neutral" rating.
And then Owens-Illinois (OI) down $2.51. The Longbow Research Corporation downgraded the glass container maker's stock from "buy" to just a "neutral."
FTI Consulting (FCN), one of the few gainers we saw today, up $4.91. Fourth quarter earnings, higher, $0.58 from $0.54 last year, $0.04 better than the Street consensus. Revenues were up 15 percent and the company expects to benefit rather greatly from the corporate restructuring in this very difficult period.
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) down $2.14. It'll cut its natural gas production by 7 percent and its joint venture with Plains Exploration at the Haynesville shale operation. That's due to low well head prices and Plains Exploration stock dropped $2.32.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) down $1.37.
Followed by Google (GOOG) down $10.83.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.36 loss there.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.25.
Intel (INTC) $0.43 drop.
Research in Motion (RIMM) fell $3.06.
Qualcomm (QCOM) losing $0.64.
$0.34 drop in Oracle (ORCL).
Gilead Sciences (GILD) down $0.53.
And then Amgen (AMGN) completing this blizzard of red ink, down $1.05 a share.
Woodward Governor (WGOV) down $5.67. This is a company that makes control - energy control systems. The Baird brokerage downgraded it from "out perform" to "neutral" in reaction to the company's purchase of Textron's HR unit.
And Dish Network (DISH) losing $1.32. Fourth quarter earnings higher, $0.48 from $0.39 a year ago, but a penny below the Street consensus and analysts say the company seems to be falling behind its rivals in the pay television market.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
