Closing Bell: Stocks decline on profit taking; AAPL, CEG, GE, MS, MOT

Posted Dec 17th 2008 4:17PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: After the Bell, Earnings Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Deals, Apple Inc (AAPL), General Electric (GE), Motorola (MOT), Market Matters, Morgan Stanley (MS)

Today was pretty weak on the economic front. OPEC's 4.2 million barrel per day cut was grossly mistaken at first as the cut really came to an additional 2.2 million barrels. Today's market selling was, from the start, all about profit taking from yesterday and overseas market participants getting out of weaker dollar denominated assets. The late day buying failed to materialize into an all-out rally.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA: 8,824.34 -99.80 -1.12%

NASDAQ: 1,579.31 -10.58 -0.67%

S&P 500: 904.42 -8.76 -0.96%

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) fell again on yet another downgrade. Oppenheimer cut the rating down to "Perform" after the company killed the Macworld conference. Shares were down almost 7% at $88.95 right before the close.

Constellation Energy Group (NYSE: CEG) fell after EDF in France trumped Warren Buffett in the buyout process for the company. EDF will now buy 49.99% of the company's nuclear assets for roughly $4.5 billion. Shares were down 18% at $23.55 right before the close.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was trading lower after reports that the company lowered its guidance for industrial businesses including jet engines, power turbines and medical equipment; although the operations will continue to be profitable. Shares were down almost 4% at $17.21 before the close.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) came out with much of the same sort of news of wider-than-expected losses, etc. Despite the news and shares coming out sharply negative this morning, shares were up 5% at $16.96 before the close.

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced yet another round of cost cutting measures as part of the never-ending restructuring roulette wheel. Amazingly, this did not include job cuts. Shares were moderately higher by 0.4% at $4.42 before the close.

Tags: aapl, CEG, ge, mot, ms, Warren Buffett, WarrenBuffett

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

12-17-2008 @ 5:12PM

Miguel said...

I don't buy all the schizophrenic bearish views on Apple. The company has a solid group of products and services with very good potential for growth, with or with Steve Jobs and Macworld.