Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
|
|
|
|
PAUL KANGAS: Wall Street headed lower this morning as doubts about the strength of the economic recovery grew more serious. Stocks were also undermined by an unexpected drop in September new home sales, which we'll detail next and there's also a smaller than expected 1 percent rise in September durable goods orders. By midday the Dow was off 50 points and the NASDAQ down 40 points. The market closed this afternoon at its lowest level after Goldman Sachs lowered its third quarter GDP forecast. So the Dow Industrial Average ended with a loss of 119.48 points at 9762.69. The NASDAQ tumbled 56.48 to 2059.61 and the Standard & Poor's 500 down 20.78, ending at 1042.63. A lot of new supply in the bond market this week and we'll take a look at that in a moment. But in bond action today, the 10- year note rose 10/32 to 101 24/32, putting the yield at 3.41 percent.
Big board volume leader on 118 million shares, Citigroup (C) losing $0.19.
Followed by Bank of America (BAC) down $0.44.
General Electric (GE) fell $0.51.
Ford Motor Co (F) a $0.37 drop.
But bucking the trend was Qwest Communications (Q) with a gain of $0.09.
Sprint Nextel (S) moved up $0.07.
And CIT Group (CIT) a dime gainer. The company raised an extra $4.5 billion from bond holders despite investor Carl Icahn's attempt to stop that process.
Pfizer (PFE) down a nickel.
AT&T (T) bucked the trend, up $0.48.
And then JPMorgan Chase (JPM) down $1.22.
ConocoPhillips (COP) fell $1.91. The company had a 30 or a 73 percent drop in third quarter earnings to $1 versus $3.39 last year. The stock felt the sting.
Goodyear Tire (GT) down $3.28 even though third quarter earnings rose to $0.30 from $0.13 last year, but the company was not upbeat on the fourth quarter and that's what hurt the stock.
Ashland (ASH), a chemical firm, down $4.83. Fourth quarter operating earnings, $0.96 a share, $0.06 above the Street estimate, but Standard & Poor's downgraded it from "buy" to "hold."
Another chemical company, Quaker Chemicals (KWR) down, up $2.51 on slightly higher third quarter earnings, $0.45 versus $0.41 last year and that's despite a 25 percent drop in sales.
Unisys (UIS) up $4.10, a big move there. The third quarter came in at $1.48 in earnings, versus a loss of $0.96 last year, but keep in mind, these figures reflect the recent one for 10 reverse split in Unisys stock.
K-Sea Transportation (KSP) down $8.45, a $0.29 first quarter loss out today versus earnings of $0.19 last year and the company cut its first quarter distribution from $0.77 a share to $0.45 and also expects not to be in compliance with some of its debt covenants, which it will seek to amend.
SPW Corp (SPW), the coal company, down $2.65. Third quarter earnings fell to only $0.19 from $0.61 last year.
And Chiquita Brands (CQB), the banana company, up $0.88, traded as high as $16.87 today after reporting third quarter earnings of $0.20, versus a loss of $0.33 a share last year. The Street was looking for a loss of $0.16. Jeffries brokerage repeated a "buy," boosted its price target to $25 a share.
NASDAQ's most active, Apple (AAPL) tumbling nearly $5, the biggest drag on the NASDAQ Composite today.
Amazon.com. (AMZN) fell $0.43.
Microsoft (MSFT) $0.57 drop.
Baidu (BIDU) coming back over $13 after tumbling $49 yesterday on a shortfall in revenues.
Intel (INTC) $0.71 loss there.
Apollo Group (APOL) down $12.91. After the close yesterday as we reported, the SEC announced it's making an informal inquiry into the company's revenue recognition practices.
Google (GOOG) down nearly $8.
Research in Motion (RIMM) down nearly $3.
And Cisco Systems (CSCO) a $0.52 loss.
Qualcomm (QCOM) $0.63 drop or gain there.
First Solar (FSLR) up $1.36. After the close today, third quarter earnings out, $1.79, $0.05 better than expected, but the stock tumbled to a $129 a share on a revenue shortfall.
Finally, shares of Illumina (ILMN) fell $8.29 after reporting disappointing third quarter profits of $0.17, $0.03 below analysts' estimates and it warned it expects a shortfall in revenues this year.
