Closing Bell: Buffett can't kill a bull (AIG, AA, RMBS, SNE, DE)

Posted Aug 19th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg

This was a light trading day that started out in the gutter from another sell-off in China and after Warren Buffett wrote an op-ed piece calling for inflation and debt worries down the road despite the U.S. being 'out of the emergency room' in its economic cycle. Then bargain buyers came back in and ran the market higher. Here were today's closing bell levels:

Dow 9,272.36 +54.42 (0.59%)
S&P 500 996.46 +6.79 (0.69%)
Nasdaq 1,969.24 +13.32 (0.68%)

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) rose after two bits of data in the last 24-hour period. It may have lost a bidder in Asia for a unit, but its new CEO is not going to just dump the advisory group unit with 6,000 brokers. Shares were up close to 9% at $26.70 ahead of the closing bell.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) was under pressure with the market, but the Goldman Sachs downgrade to "Neutral" added further pressure. Shares were down by 3.5% at $12.47 late in the trading day.

Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS) traded higher on rumors of a settlement on a patent case. Shares wer eup about 8% at $18.65 ahead of the closing bell.

Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) fell after announcing key price cuts for its PS3 gaming system, which was taken as a final move of desperation to increase unit sales. Sony shares were off by 3.55% at $26.59 ahead of the closing bell.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) reported a drop of over 25% in earnings to $0.99 EPS but estimates were $0.57 EPS. The company forecasts equipment sales being down 34% in Q4. Shares were down 3.5% at $43.52 ahead of today's closing bell.

Tags: aig, alcoa, sony