Before the bell: Stocks to tank; WM, RIMM, AAPL, MSFT, HBC, KBH, JBL
Posted by: in Latest NewsFiled under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Market matters, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Research in Motion (RIMM), KB HOME (KBH), Washington Mutual (WM), Economic data, Financial Crisis
Just one day after investors ran up stocks in expectation of a bailout plan, U.S. stock futures dropped significantly Friday as the $700 billion bailout plan wasn’t approved after all and as Washington Mutual was seized by regulators in the country’s largest-ever failure. Discussions over the bailout are still ongoing, while JPMorgan Chase was forced to acquire the rest of WaMu. To add to an already tense environment, the final release of the second-quarter GDP is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT, and the September University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index is due out at 10 a.m EDT.
Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM) was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Thursday, and then sold the thrift’s banking assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) for $1.9 billion. It was the largest failure by a U.S. bank. JPMorgan also said it would raise another $8 billion through the sale of stock. WM shares are down almost 85%, JPM’s down over 2% in pre-market trading.
Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) posted a sharply higher quarterly profit on Thursday, in line with expectations, but gave a forecast that was below expectation. Investors are concerned that as the economy slows, RIM’s big corporate clients could scale back BlackBerry purchases and upgrades. Deutsche Bank downgraded RIM from Hold to Sell, saying it relies more on hardware sales thse days, which means new product launches in this environment could worsen. RBC Capital Markets also downgraded RIM from Outperform to Sector Perform, but Credit Suisse, upgraded RIM from Underperform to Neutral. RIMM shares are down over 20% in pre-market trading.
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