Closing Bell: Claw-backs are bears, not bonuses (AXP, AIG, C, EBAY, SPWRA)

Posted Mar 16th 2009 4:10PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: eBay (EBAY), Citigroup Inc. (C), American Express (AXP), Amer Intl Group (AIG)

Crummy manufacturing and production data and continued weakness in housing data were not stopping buyers today. At least not until the last 90 minutes when we saw selling take away the triple digit gains in the DJIA. This looked like another day where bulls were washing out the bears until late-day from a DJIA financial component took much of the wind out of the sails today. But the tech-heavy NASDAQ was in negative territory most of the day. Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow 7,216.97 -7.01 (-0.10%)
S&P 500 753.89 -2.66 (-0.35%)
Nasdaq 1,404.02 -27.48 (-1.92%)

Top Analyst Calls

American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) was the culprit for what took the markets south late in the day. This was after an SEC filing showed continued delinquencies and charge-offs as well as decreased loan amounts in its portfolio. Shares were down 1.5% to $12.89 shortly before the close, but this was actually down almost 10% from today's intraday highs.

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) soared despite the fact that it spent the weekend defending itself against bonus criticism, after funds from the government were used for bonuses. But the firm did disclose the counterparties that it paid funds to, and that sent shares higher. This was also despite the fact that Obama and team were taking back those bonuses. Shares were up a whopping 71% on a percentage basis but only up $0.37 to $0.87 late in the day.

Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) disclosed four new independent board members that it is nominating for election at the April 21 shareholder meeting. There were reports last week that these would be established and known individuals with deep tentacles in the financial community. Citigroup shares were up another 27% to $2.27 shortly before the close today.

eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was down over 1% to $11.77 shortly before the close. This was after the company's new plan was listed as one not to buy into by Barron's over the weekend. There are still many doubts out there about eBay's strength and its ability to deliver.

SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWRA) was weak today after Morgan Stanley downgraded the solar producer to Underweight. Shares were down 2.6% to $23.75 shortly before the close.

Tags: aig, citigroup, ebay, SPWRA, sunpower