Closing Bell: Stocks slide amid unemployment, banking woes; COST, LULU, NT down, AMLN, LLY gain

Posted Dec 11th 2008 4:20PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: After the Bell, Market Matters, Costco Wholesale (COST), Nortel Networks (NT), Lilly (Eli) (LLY)

Stocks fell today as financials were hit hard after a report from UBS predicted losses in the banking sector again in 2009. Jamie Dimon's interview comments didn't give any massive confidence boost either. This was the first day that there was a major move to the upside in what feels like forever, as oil was up $3.49 per barrel at $47.01 on last look. Today's weekly jobless claims data was also the worst we have seen in this part of the cycle.

Here are today's closing bell levels:
DJIA: 8,565.09 (-2.24)
S&P 500: 873.58 (-2.85)
NASDAQ: 1,507.88 (-3.68)

52-Week Lows

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) announced that the US FDA gave feedback on the DURATION-1 study for once/week diabetes treatment that will allow it to file a new drug application later in the first half of 2009. Shares were up 19% at $10.18 right before the close.

Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) beat earnings with $0.65 EPS vs. $0.62 estimates. Revenues were a tad light. The company said its sales were hurt by a slowdown in non-food discretionary sales and related reductions in margins associated with these sales in the latter half of the quarter.

Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) put its earnings for 2009 at a level above estimates as $4.35 to $4.55 vs. $4.26 estimates. This is before wide charges for the ImClone buyout and the company does expect slower sales growth.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) beat earnings but guided down for the coming quarter. It is still profitable if it hits targets, but it now expects actual earnings contractions in the next quarter. Shares were down 30% at $7.28 before the close.

Nortel Networks Corporation (NYSE: NT) signaled that it was going to have to conduct another reverse stock split based upon its stock being under $1.00. Shares were down almost 2% at $0.39 before the close.

Tags: AMLN, cost, LLY, LULU, NT