Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street started the day on a mixed note, but steadily gathered strength. News that February wholesale prices rose just one-tenth of 1 percent contributed to the momentum, as did a 22 percent jump in February housing starts, when a drop was expected. By early afternoon, the Dow was sporting an 80-point gain and the NASDAQ was up 30 points. In the final hour of trading, buyers came on strongly, lifting the market to the day's best levels at the final bell. The Dow closed up 178.73 points at 7,395.70. The NASDAQ jumped 58.09 ending at 1,462.11, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 24.23 to 778.12. The bond market, the 10-year note fell 15/32 to 97 25/32, lifting the yield to 3.01 percent.
Most active big board issue trading 117 million shares was Citigroup (C) up another $0.18 as it continues its recent comeback.
Bank of America (BAC) up $0.09.
And then a $0.13 rise in American Intl Group (AIG).
General Electric (GE) $0.34 gain.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) did well, up $2.05.
Wells Fargo (WFC) edging up $0.96.
An $0.11 gain for Pfizer (PFE).
Alcoa (AA) down $0.53, traded as low as $5.33 today. After the close yesterday, as we reported, Alcoa slashed its quarterly dividend from $0..17 to only $0.03 and it's going to offer 150 million common shares to the public, along with $250 million in convertible notes, a total of $1.1 billion worth of securities.
AT&T (T) up $1.01.
Sprint Nextel (S) $0.05 gain there, tenth in volume.
Home Depot (HD) up $1.34 or 6.6 percent. The story here, the Jeffries brokerage upgraded it from "hold" to "buy" and did the same thing with a number of other major retailers like Best Buy Co (BBY), Costco Wholesale (COST), Kohl's (KSS), Lowes Companies (LOW) and Target (TGT), all doing well on the upside on that upgrade.
Arcelormittal (MT), the big steel company, down $1.33. The "Financial Times" reports rumors are making the rounds that the company retained JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank to coordinate a big rights issue, but Arcelor said that is not true.
Another steel stock down, this one Nucor (NUE) off $3.40. The company's forecasting a first quarter loss of $0.55 to $0.65 a share and notes that (INAUDIBLE) demand is still weakening.
Resmed (RMD), this is a company that makes products to treat sleep disorders and the stock down $2.40 after Wachovia downgraded it from "out perform" to just a "market perform" rating.
Factset Research (FDS) moving up $3.02. Higher second quarter earnings, $0.71 versus $0.58 last year, $0.02 above the Street estimate and the company plans to buy back an additional $100 million of its own stock.
Ensco International (ESV) gained $1.73. The offshore oil driller got an upgrade from Deutsche Bank from "sell" to a "hold." And then Wright Express (WXS) down $0.87. It traded as low as $15.17 this morning after Keybanc downgraded it from "buy" to "hold."
Then a big percentage loss for Sauer-Danfoss (SHS). This company makes hydraulic systems and it says preliminarily it'll have a fourth quarter loss of $2.09 a share versus $0.18 in earnings last year and sales dropped 25 percent.
And then Labranche & Co (LAB) up $1.36, big percentage drop. It's the New York exchange market maker. The company's forecasting a first quarter loss due to extremely poor market conditions. NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) up $4.24. The company introduced software updates for its iPhone and it looks like it was well received.
Google (GOOG) up $15.65.
Microsoft (MSFT) a $0.65 gain.
As was the case with Intel (INTC).
Amazon.com (AMZN) up $4.37. $0.69 advance in Cisco Systems (CSCO). The story there, Goldman Sachs issued a "buy" in anticipation of Cisco's upcoming unified computing system.
Oracle (ORCL) $0.50 gain.
Qualcomm (QCOM) gained $1.47.
Research in Motion (RIMM) rising $2.49.
But First Solar (FSLR) down $8.90. Barclays Capital downgraded it from "over weight" to "equal weight" and traded as low as $109.84 today.
And finally, Energy Conversion Devices (ENER) sank $4.28 after forecasting flat third quarter revenues and warning that poor economic conditions forced it to pull full year guidance.
