Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Thursday, January 08, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Rotten December sales results at the nation's retailers put Wall Street on the defensive this morning. The Dow fell just over 100 points a little after the opening thanks in part to a $4 loss in Wal-Mart stock, while the NASDAQ was down 13 points at the outset. We'll have more about the retail picture in just a moment. Meanwhile, a modest decline in weekly jobless benefit claims did help the market stabilize by early afternoon, but buyers turned very cautious ahead of tomorrow's employment report, so stocks turned choppy, but a late rally in the tech sector did result in a mixed closing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 27.24 points at 8742.46. The NASDAQ Composite actually gained 17.95 points, ending at 1617.01. Standard & Poor's 500 up just over 3 points at 909.73. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note rose 15/32 to 111 11/32, putting the yield at 2.45 percent.
Topping the big board active list on 21.8 million shares, Citigroup (C) edging a penny higher. You heard the news on it earlier. Then Bank of America (BAC) a $0.17 drop.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) tumbling $4.16. That hurt the Dow Industrial Average by 33 points. As you heard, the company's December same store sales were down less, were up I should say less than 2 percent and the company is cutting its fourth quarter earnings estimate from a high of $1.07 down to $0.94 a share at best. The company sees January same store sales flat to up maybe just 2 percent. Nevertheless, Standard & Poor's repeated a "strong buy" on Wal-Mart stock.
General Electric (GE) a $0.03 gain.
$0.20 advance in SprintNextel (S).
Wells Fargo (WFC) down $0.15.
Followed by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) an $0.87 loss.
Compania Vale (RIO) $0.37 gain.
EMC Corp (EMC) up $0.71. The company plans to cut 2,400 jobs or 6 percent of its workforce. The company also sees fourth quarter earnings at $0.23 to $0.24 a share and that's right in line with Wall Street estimates.
Pfizer (PFE) tenth in volume was up $0.16.
Target (TGT) in that retailing group managed to gain $0.51 despite a 4.1 percent drop in its December same store sales, but the Street was expecting a much worse drop, around 9.1 percent.
Limited Brands (LTD) down $0.70. Its December same store sales fell 10 percent. The company sees lower than expected fourth quarter earnings in the range of $0.55 to $0.70 a share.
Gamestop (GME) up $2.97. The company said its 2008 holiday sales were up 22 percent from a year ago. As a result, it's boosting its fourth quarter same store sales guidance to 9 to 9 1/2 percent on the plus side.
AK Steel Holding (AKS) up $1.28. Keybanc brokerage upgraded it from "hold" to a "buy."
Then the big engineering construction firm, Shaw Group (SGR) up $5.16. Big first quarter earnings excluding items, $0.75, way up from $0.45 a year ago.
MSC Industrial (MSM) down $2.09. First quarter earnings, $0.72, $0.02 better than last year, but the company sees second quarter falling to only $0.39 to $0.43 a share.
And Manitowoc Co (MTW) down $1.11. The company sees 2008 earnings at the low end of its earlier estimate of $3.15 to $3.25. Also it gave a rather guarded outlook.
Ion Geophysical (IO), used to be called Input/Output, down $1.34, big percentage drop. The company said its fourth quarter revenues will only be around $145 to $165 million. Wall Street was expecting $244 million.
And Coach (COH) a $0.66 drop, dropped $1 more than that after the close when the company said it's cutting its second quarter earnings estimate from $0.77 to $0.67 a share.
Apple (AAPL) topped the NASDAQ actives, up $1.69.
Followed by Microsoft (MSFT) $0.61 gain.
Google (GOOG) up $3.18.
Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) down $7.34. The company issued a fourth quarter sales warning. It makes those surgical robots.
Intel (INTC) an $0.11 gain there.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down $0.19.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.22 advance.
First Solar (FSLR) did well, up $6.86.
Oracle (ORCL) a $0.03 drop.
And then Dryships (DRYS), tenth in volume, up $2.17.
Sears Holdings (SHLD) up $9.43, even though its December same store sales fell 7.3 percent, but the company said it's going to have $1.3 billion in cash in its coffers at the end of the year as part of a very strong balance sheet.
And then Thinkorswim Group (SWIM) up $2.69. It's an online broker and TD Ameritrade Holdings is offering cash and stock worth about $88.70 a share on a take over.
Those are the stocks in the news tonight.
