Posted May 12th 2009 9:30AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Market matters, Bank of New York (BK), BB and T (BBT), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Dow Chemical (DOW), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Wells Fargo (WFC), Cramer on BloggingStocks, Financial Crisis
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says we should closely monitor the situation as more banks raise capital with equity. What really did happen Friday? I keep thinking about this because, surely, if you saw how well the
Wells Fargo (NYSE:
WFC) (
Cramer's Take) and
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:
MS) (
Cramer's Take) deals behaved, didn't you, as a bank player, have to presume that there would be and will be more offerings?
If Wells Fargo went up 6, isn't it reasonable to presume that
Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:
BK) (
Cramer's Take),
KeyCorp (NYSE:
KEY) (
Cramer's Take),
Capital One (NYSE:
COF) (
Cramer's Take),
BB&T (NYSE:
BBT) (
Cramer's Take) and no doubt all of the others, would do the same? Who wouldn't take advantage of this?
Fifth Third (NASDAQ:
FITB) (
Cramer's Take)?
Suntrust (NYSE:
STI) (
Cramer's Take)?
Why did they rally so much?
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: A bevy of bank offerings
Posted May 11th 2009 11:50AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Morgan Stanley (MS), Dow Chemical (DOW), Analyst initiations, Valero Energy (VLO)
Analyst upgrades:
- FBR Capital upgraded KBW, Inc (NYSE: KBW) to Market Perform from Underperform as it sees increased capital-raising opportunities for small and mid-sized banks and believes the company's quarter is off to a strong start. The firm raised its target price to $23 from $18.
- Pali Capital upgraded Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) to Buy from Neutral on expectations the company's strategic shift towards advisory, distribution and retail will be monetized sooner than expected and its capital markets business is gaining traction. The firm set a $33 target on the stock.
- Baird upgraded Stericycle (NASDAQ: SRCL) to Outperform from Neutral and raised its target to $58 from $55 based on valuation predictable earnings, and its market leading platform.
- Apollo Investment (NYSE: AINV) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette.
- HSBC Holdings (NYSE: HBC) was lifted at Goldman to Buy from Neutral.
- Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: MS, BBC, DOW, COST, VLO, WSM ...
Posted May 5th 2009 6:00PM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Dow Chemical (DOW)
Dow Chemical (DOW) is raising $1.63 billion by selling common stock. But it really needs more money than that. Perhaps in the current credit market the interest rate it would have had to pay on debt was simply too much.
Reportedly, $1 billion will be used to reduce debt it is taking on to buy rival Rohm and Hass. But the total purchase price of the transaction is $16.5 billion. Dow tried to get out of the deal. The margins in the chemical industry were ruined by the recession, but the document it signed with Rohm & Hass was airtight. Dow will almost certainly end up overpaying and will be burdened with a mammoth debt load in the process.
Continue reading Dow Chemical to raise money - but not enough
Posted May 2nd 2009 9:40AM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Time Warner (TWX), Pfizer (PFE), Starbucks (SBUX), Motorola (MOT), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Verizon Communications (VZ), Office Depot (ODP), Eastman Kodak (EK), QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM), Dow Chemical (DOW), Burger King Hldgs (BKC), Goodyear Tire and Rubber (GT), MetLife Inc. (MET), Visa Inc. (V)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Starbucks, Kodak, Verizon, Visa, Office Depot, Baidu and more
Posted Apr 2nd 2009 4:10PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Amazon.com (AMZN), Citigroup Inc. (C), Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS), Dow Chemical (DOW)
Stocks continued their fight higher today. The G-20 meeting yielded more talks of regulation, more aid for developing nations, and additional labor efforts globally. But the real boost was the
end of "mark-to-market" accounting for the banks on illiquid debt assets. This sent the banks flying. Stocks which might have otherwise sold off even rallied on the surge today.
Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 7,978.08 +216.48 (2.79%)
S&P 500 834.38 +23.30 (2.87%)
Nasdaq 1,602.63 +51.03 (3.29%)
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst DowngradesContinue reading Closing Bell: FASB says 'you bet your assets' (AMZN, BAC, C, DOW, MGM, DOW)
Posted Apr 2nd 2009 12:50PM by Brent Archer
Filed under: Major movement, Deals, Good news, Dow Chemical (DOW), Options, Technical Analysis
Dow Chemical (NYSE:
DOW -
option chain) shares are headed higher today after the company closed its acquisition of Rohm & Haas. This allows DOW to announce today it
plans to sell Morton Salt to German company K+S Aktiengesellschaft for nearly $1.7 billion. This will help DOW stabilize its finances, which were left in a lurch when Kuwaiti financing on the Rohm & Haas deal fell through. Left out in the cold in this deal is
Compass Minerals International (NYSE:
CMP), a salt company that had been expected to get a bid from K+S. If you think that DOW won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on that stock.
DOW opened this morning at $9.46. So far today the stock has hit a low of $9.25 and a high of $9.75. As of 12:05, DOW is trading at $9.69, up 88 cents (10.0%). The chart for DOW looks neutral and
S&P gives DOW a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.
Continue reading Dow Chemical (DOW) to sell Morton Salt for $1.675 billion
Posted Mar 24th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Allergan (AGN), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Dow Chemical (DOW), Las Vegas Sands (LVS)
Today's lack of a rally came with little surprise. The massive gains yesterday were reminders of the panic buying seen in the past. Profit takers used the strength to unload on the new buyers who chased stocks yesterday.
Confusing housing data caused another brief hope because of an uptick, but that was following a downward revision. The Geithner-Bernanke testimony to Congress today did very little for the markets. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 7,660.37 -115.49 (-1.49%)
S&P 500 806.37 -16.55 (-2.01%)
Nasdaq 1,518.70 -37.07 (-2.38%)
Top Analyst Upgrades & DowngradesContinue reading Closing Bell: Profit taking beats the bull (AGN, AIG, DOW, GS, LVS)
Posted Mar 10th 2009 7:37AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, International markets, Deals, Market matters, Genentech Inc (DNA), Dow Chemical (DOW), Economic data, Oil, Federal Reserve, Recession
Finally, a morning where stocks are set to bounce at the open as some positive signs pushed U.S. stock futures higher. As investors await Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke's comments, there were some positive signs from the banking sector and on the deals front.
Citigroup (NYSE:
C)'s Pandit said the bank was profitable during the first two months of the year. Also,
Dow Chemical (NYSE:
DOW) decided tentatively to go ahead with its acquisition of
Rohm & Hass (NYSE:
ROH) after all. There were also reports
Genentech (NYSE:
DNA) was on the verge of being fully acquired -- all coming a day after the mega-deal between
Merck (NYSE:
MRK) and
Schering Plough (NYSE:
SGP).
Continue reading Before the bell: Stocks set for a higher open on Citi, deals
Posted Feb 3rd 2009 8:18AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Earnings reports, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Motorola (MOT), BP p.l.c. ADS (BP), Merck and Co (MRK), Dow Chemical (DOW), SanDisk Corp (SNDK)
Ford (NYSE: F) and
General Motors (NYSE: GM) are among the many car companies to report January sales today, with estimates calling for declines of possibly over 40%.
SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) posted a huge fourth-quarter net loss of $1.9 billion Monday after the close. While some of the loss was attributed to a $2 billion one-time charge, weak consumer spending and pricing pressures in the memory chip market also took their toll. Sandisk's adjusted net loss was $1.65 a share; Revenue was $863.9 million, down from $1.25 billion last year. Analysts had expected a net loss of 60 cents a share, on revenue of $766.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters. SNDK shares sank over 20% in premarket trading.
Continue reading Stocks in the news: SNDK, DOW, BP, VOD, MRK, MOT, M, F, GM ...
Posted Jan 27th 2009 11:10AM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Deals, Law, Dow Chemical (DOW)
Back in July, Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) agreed to pay $15.4 billion for Rohm & Haas Co. (NYSE: ROH), a top specialty chemicals operator. At the time, it looked like a sign that confidence was coming back into the system.
But, of course, the smart money was proved wrong – once again -- as the deal fell apart. So, this week Rohm & Haas has filed a suit against Dow to force the deal to happen. You see, the deal was supposed to close Monday.
The legal action rattled investors: On Monday, Dow's stock fell 7.61% to $13.24 and Rohm & Haas' stock was down 13.25% to $57.10.
Continue reading Dow Chemical's botched M&A experiment
Posted Jan 27th 2009 8:15AM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Deals, Law, Dow Chemical (DOW)
At just over $13, Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW) is already trading near its 52-week low. The shares may go lower. Rohm & Haas (NYSE:ROH), which is being bought by Dow, is suing to get the deal finished.
According to Dow Jones, "Dow confirmed that it doesn't intend to close the merger by a Tuesday deadline, with Chief Executive Andrew Liveris calling the deal 'untenable at this time' in a prepared statement. "
Dow is in a pinch. A joint venture with Kuwait, which should have brought in billions of dollars, was canceled. And, banks are not likely to lend money for most M&A deals. Private equity firms have shut off almost all of their investment activity.
Continue reading Dow Chemical (DOW) getting sued, watch out below
Next Page »
With litigation, it seems that the winners are usually the attorneys. Perhaps this is one of the key reasons that 
I wrote yesterday about the current, relatively low level of the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), comparing it to the 2002 -2003 triple-bottom. I concluded that low levels after a bear market could indicate that a capitulation had occurred.
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