Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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PAUL KANGAS: Those two reports gave Wall Street's recent rally a new lease on life this morning. The Dow jumped 160 points by 11:00 a.m. and the NASDAQ gained 29 points. But then the market stumbled a bit after a disappointing auction of five-year Treasury notes. That sent the Dow to 100 point loss by 3:00 p.m. However, financials and tech stocks led a sharp come-back in the final hour, resulting in the positive market close. The Dow Industrial Average ended with a gain of 89.84 at 7749.81. The NASDAQ Composite was up 2.43 points at 1528.95 while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 7.76, ending at 813.88. In the bond market, the 10-year note fell 24/32 to 99 21/32, putting the yield at 2.79 percent.
Big board volume leader on 122 million shares traded on the big board, Citigroup (C) down $0.07.
Bank of America (BAC) a $0.55 gain. The "LA Times" reports CEO Ken Lewis wants to start repaying the company's $45 billion in Federal bailout funds next month. Separately, the "New York Post" reports Bank America and Citigroup are aggressively buying triple-A mortgage-based securities in the secondary market.
American International Group (AIG) $0.17 loss.
General Electric (GE) $0.12 gain.
And then Wells Fargo (WFC) in there fifth in volume with a $0.92 advance.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) one of the better gainers in the financial sector, up $2.34.
Pfizer (PFE) up $0.39.
Morgan Stanley (MS) an $0.86 gain.
And then Alcoa (AA) a $0.40 advance.
AT&T (T), tenth in volume, was down $0.06 a share.
IBM (IBM) closed down $0.35 and after the close, the company reportedly is expected to tell up to 5,000 North American employees their jobs will be eliminated with many of them being transferred to IBM employees in India.
Verizon Communications (VZ) down $0.38, traded as low as $29.40 after ITT filed suit against the partnership involving Verizon, alleging that it infringed on its global positioning system's patent.
Morgan Stanley (MS) was up $0.86. The company will pay $7 1/4 million to settle charges that its brokers induced dozens of Eastman Kodak and Xerox workers to retire early and open accounts that cost them much of their wealth due to risky investments.
Autoliv (ALV) down $1.90. The company makes those air bags and it's going to sell 13.4 million shares of its common stock to the public at $16 each, a little earnings dilution there. Also the IRS said it may boost the company's taxable income by $294 million.
Hearst Argyle TV (HTV) up $1.94, how that's for percentage gain, 93 percent. Hearst Corporation plans to make a cash tender of $4 a share for the 33 percent it doesn't already own.
And then commercial real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis (CBG) up $1.99. The company and its lenders agreed on amending its credit pact to give the firm increased financial flexibility to help it get through the weak market environment.
And then Robbins & Myers (RBN) down $1.97. Second quarter earnings, $0.46, a nickel above the Street, but the company cut its full year earnings estimate from $2 down to $1.65 a share.
Most active NASDAQ issue, Apple (APPL) losing a penny.
Followed by Google (GOOG) down $3.10.
Intel (INTC) a $0.06 loss there. "Wall Street Journal" reports the company will formerly unveil its next server systems chip next Monday.
Microsoft (MSFT) a nickel drop.
And then Cisco Systems (CSCO) down $0.11.
Qualcomm (QCOM) gained $0.47.
Research in Motion (RIMM) losing $1.31. JPMorgan started coverage on RIMM with an "under weight" rating and a $40 a share price target.
baidu.com (BIIDU) down $4.50.
Oracle (ORCL) $0.18 gain.
And finally, rounding out the NASDAQ most active was amazon.com (AMZN) falling $0.41 to $72.40.
