Those who were hoping for an Obama victory lap on the floor of the NYSE only got their toes bitten by bears. Weakening economic data and the market preparing for very weak retail sales numbers took away any shot of major gains today, and you can always blame major profit taking after a multi-day rally phase we saw.Top Analyst Downgrades
Arcelor Mittal (NYSE: MT) was slapped after the global steel giant gave guidance for EBITDA in Q4 at $2.5 to $3.0 billion. This is being taken as an earnings warning with 2008 expectations being implied at roughly $24.2 billion as being more than 10% under consensus expectations. Shares were down 20% at $25.30 on above average volume shortly before the close.
Greenhill & Co., Inc. (NYSE: GHL) was down after it filed to sell up to 3.5 million shares of common stock in a secondary offering. Shares were down over 11% at $61.61 shortly before the close.
Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) may have a new issue in its Apollo-Hexion merger. Standard & Poor's debt ratings group lowered the credit ratings on acquirer Hexion over litigation risks and over concerns of how the company will perform during the slower economy. Huntsman was down 14% at $8.58 right before the close.
IAC/InterActiveCorp. (NASDAQ: IACI) posted $0.25 EPS on a 10.1% gain in revenues to $369.3 million, versus estimates of $0.16 EPS and $355.4 million in revenues. Despite charges not included, this is a better report from IAC than we have seen in the past. Shares were up over 5% to $17.50 shortly before the close.
Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) was supposed to be a winner after Tuesday its Clearwire venture received FCC approval for the wireless broadband merger venture between the companies and shares jumped 6% last night. Unfortunately, that didn't hold and Sprint was a horrible performer today. This one was down more than 9% at $3.75 right before the close.
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