Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Friday, March 06, 2009
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street's initial reaction to the employment report was positive because, while it was bad, it wasn't worse than economists expected. So the Dow rose about 100 points at the outset, with the NASDAQ up 10 points. The early gains turned into losses after the president of the New York Fed said that the economy still has considerable downside momentum. At 3:00 p.m., the Dow was off 107 points, but then a late surge of buying turned it positive by the final bell. So the Dow Industrial Average closed up 32.50 points exactly at 6,626.94. This week it fell three times, rose twice and dropped 435.99 points overall. The NASDAQ lost 5.74, ending at 1,293.85 today. It rose only once this week and fell 83.99 points overall. Standard & Poor's 500 gained .83 to close at 683.38 today. For the week, it lost 51.71 points. Over in the bond market, the 10-year note lost 18/32 to 98 29/32, putting the yield at 2.88 percent.
Most active New York exchange issue on 95 million shares, Citigroup (C) edging up $0.01.
Then General Electric (GE) with a $0.40 gain.
Bank of America (BAC) dropped $0.03. There's a story here. The New York attorney general is urging a court to reject Bank of America's request to keep Merrill Lynch's 2008 bonus information confidential. The AG is investigating the almost $4 billion in bonus payments made just before the Bank of America merged with Merrill Lynch.
Moving along, we see JPMorgan Chase (JPM) dropping $0.67.
And then Wells Fargo (WFC) $0.49 gain, although it's slashing its quarterly dividend from $0.34 down to a nickel, but that will save $5 billion a year. The stock was all over the place today, up to $9.49 high today and low was $8.02.
Pfizer (PFE) $0.06 gain.
Co Vale do Rio (RIO) was down $0.31.
And then Dow Chemical (DOW) with a $0.64 gain. The company and Rohm & Haas and back at the bargaining table to try settling litigation related to their proposed merger that went sour and on that news, Rohm & Haas today jumped $9.79 to $63.80. The original bid was $78 a share for Rohm & Haas.
Time Warner (TWX) a $0.41 gain there.
US Bancorp (USB), tenth in volume was a $0.19 loser.
Genentech (DNA) jumping $9.22. Roche of Switzerland, which owns 56 percent, has sweetened its buyout bid from $86.50 to $93 a share for the 44 percent it doesn't already own. Genentech management told shareholders to take no action right now while it reviews that offer.
H&R Block (HRB) moving up $1.36. Third quarter earnings, $0.20, way up from $0.02 last year. Revenues jumped 11 percent.
Ann Taylor Stores (ANN) down $2.13, big loss in the fourth quarter, $1.03 a share versus earnings of $0.19 last year and same store sales tumbled 24 percent and on top of that, the company sees a challenging first quarter.
Macy's (M) edged up $0.36 a share. It traded as high as $7.45. Goldman Sachs this morning upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy."
And Snap-On (SNA) an $0.86 gain. Janney Montgomery Scott brokerage upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy."
Cubic (CUB), the electronics firm, up $1.82. JPMorgan upgraded a "neutral" to "over weight" in the belief the company's long-term prospects are good.
Steinway Musical Instrument (LVB) on a strong key today. Fourth quarter, $0.40, down from $0.90 last year, but that was $0.15 better than Wall Street was expecting, a nice move in the stock.
Borgwarner (BWA) down $0.75. It's suspending its quarterly dividend of $0.12 a share until as the company said, economic conditions improve.
And then Emergent Biosolutions (EBS) up $2.43. After the close yesterday, fourth quarter earnings came in at $0.05. The Street was estimating a loss of $0.02 and today the Caris (ph) brokerage issued a "buy" recommendation.
Apple (AAPL) topped the active list on NASDAQ, down $3.54, traded as low as $82.33 after JPMorgan cut 2009 earnings estimate from $4.82 to $4.73 because it appears said JPMorgan the iPhone sales are tapering off.
Google (GOOG) up $2.93.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.37 drop.
Microsoft (MSFT) edged a penny higher.
And Qualcomm (QCOM) lost $1 exactly.
Intel (INTC) $0.10 gain.
Amazon.com (AMZN) a little profit taking, down $3.08.
Research in Motion (RIMM) $1.64 loss.
Oracle (ORCL) edged down $0.06.
And then came Amgen (AMGN) with a $0.82 loss.
Fuel Systems Solutions (FSYS) plunging $6.15. The alternative fuel products company reported a sharp drop in fourth quarter earnings to $0.04 and that was down from $0.31 a year ago. Sales were hurt by the strength in the dollar according to the company.
And those are the stocks in the news tonight.
