Stocks were wishy-washy all day long, but had a very late-day comeback from earlier lows. Stocks were lower overseas as it turned out that the Madoff-fraud losses were actually going to cost some real companies some real money. The housing data left little to be desired for the six months ahead. The "whatever the bailout plan from the White House for the auto sector" was also another uncertainty today. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA: 8,564.53 -65.15 -0.75%
NASDAQ: 1,508.34 -32.38 -2.10%
S&P 500: 868.60 -11.13 -1.27%
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was down all day on a rather late and untimely analyst downgrade this morning. Shares were down almost 5% at $93.70 right before the close.
Baidu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was down on a negative research call after Pali Research initiated coverage with a Sell rating in new coverage today. No one listened. Shares were up more than 5% around $118.00 right before the close.
General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) was trading up 6% in premarket action early this morning on hopes that the White House was going to come through for the U.S. auto sector with a rescue plan after the Senate killed the proposed bailout last week. Shares did stay positive, but were only up 4% at $4.12 right before the close.
Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) was known by most as a dead private equity deal, but the Hexcion acquisition has been formally terminated for the chemicals company. Another private equity deal bites the dust. The reaction to this was huge with shares down almost 50% to $2.95 right before the close.
Tellabs Inc. (NASDAQ: TLAB) was noted as one of the buys for stocks under $10 in Barron's this weekend based valuation and somewhat stable telecom orders. It was also raised to Overweight at Barclays this morning. Shares were only up about 2.5% at $4.05 right before the close.
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