Special Reports

Top 10 News Items 11/17-11/21: Citi (C) in Free Fall, Financials Follow; Auto Bailout Delayed Until Next Month Nov 21, 2008 04:03PM

This a recap of the top news items from the last week on Wall Street:

1. Shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C) were in free fall this week, declining more than 60% amid fresh concerns about the financial stability of the company. Attempting to pick up shares at seemingly value levels, Prince Alwaleed announced plans that he will boost his stake in Citi back to 5% soon. The bank also announced plans to cut about 50,000 jobs from its workforce, but despite the announcements, Citi management appears to be scrambling for a vote of confidence, including a possible merger.

2. Considering the investor worries surrounding Citigroup, financial stocks across the board plunged; numerous financials set new 52-week lows: Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) fell 35% setting a new low at $10.01, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) fell 22% to a new low of $47.41 and JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) fell 38% to a new low of $19.69. Notably, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.a) fell 18% to $82,600.

3. The outlook for the US automakers continued to worsen this week. Flying to Washington to testify in front of Congress, execs from General Motors (NYSE: GM), Ford (NYSE: F) and Chrysler could not prove convincing enough, however, and democratic leaders decided they would delay an announcement until December, asking the execs to return next month with a plan on exactly how they intend to use federal money. Despite large declines on Wednesday, both GM and Ford rallied Thursday and Friday to close this week flat.

4. As fear moved through different parts of the economy this week, commercial mortgage backed securities got crushed. Deterioration in this space has traders speculating on whether commercial real estate will be the next shoe to drop.

5. Yahoo!'s (Nasdaq: YHOO) Co-Founder and CEO, Jerry Yang, finally, finally stepped down from his positions at the search giant. Separately, shares of Yahoo! tumbled 20% on Wednesday when Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) CEO, Steve Ballmer, made comments saying talks related to any deal with Yahoo! are now "done". The stock closed this week's trading session around $9.15, about 72% lower than Microsoft's $33 bid that Yang turned down.

6. Dalls Maverick's owner, Mark Cuban, was charged with insider trading by the SEC earlier this week. According to the regulatory agency, Cuban sold 600,000 shares of Mamma.com just after hearing that the company would soon announce an equity offering. No new developments have been announced since the news initially hit.

7. Tuesday, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) reported preliminary better-than-the-Street Q4 sales and EPS. The company also guided Q1 and FY09 above the Street, showing that not everyone is losing money in this market. Shares of HP rose 12% this week, much better than the 9.9% decline in the S&P 500.

8. Friday, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) announced that Lee Scott will step down from his positions as President and CEO, effective February 1. The retailer disclosed that its Board has selected Mike Duke to succeed Scott.

9. Crude oil broke below the $50 level just several months after hitting an all-time high just under $150. Many traders view the drastic slide in crude oil prices as a welcomed-relief to US consumers, however, some consider it an indicator of the global slowdown which seems to be impending.

10. Grand Canyon Eduction (Nasdaq: LOPE) began public trading this week. The IPO marked the first offering in more than 3-months. After pricing at $12 and initially trading under $10, the stock rallied with the broader markets in the last hour of trading, closing the week around $12.59.

Trading Radar for 11/24: Campbell (CPB), HP (HPQ), Donaldson (DCI) Report; Existing Home Sales for Oct. Due Nov 21, 2008 03:01PM

The Trading Radar highlights key earnings and economic announcements for tomorrow's trading session:

Intraday or Not Specified:
Economics:
10am ET

• Existing Home Sales for October - Street expects 5.05M, compared to 5.18M in Sept.

Earnings:
Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) - consensus EPS $0.76, revs $2.32B
CBRL Group (Nasdaq: CBRL) - consensus EPS $0.52, revs $586.68M

After Market Closes:
Earnings:
Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) - consensus EPS $0.44, revs $661.73M
Atwood Oceanics (NYSE: ATW) - consensus EPS $1.13, revs $156.73M
Donaldson (NYSE: DCI) - consensus EPS $0.54, revs $567.71M
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) - consensus EPS $1.01, revs $33.32B

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Unusual 11 Mid-Day Movers 11/21: DISK, LGND, SOLR, AU Higher; BGP, BHS, FL, MED Lower Nov 21, 2008 01:14PM

Image Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: DISK) 111.6% HIGHER; has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Nyx Acquisitions, Inc. to sell Image in a transaction valued at approximately $100 million, including the assumption of the company's outstanding debt under its credit facility, replication advance obligation and convertible note. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Image stockholders will receive $2.75 per share in cash. The agreed-upon acquisition price represents a 299% premium to Image's closing share price of $0.69 on November 20, 2008, and a 267% premium to the 30-day average closing price of $0.75 ended November 20, 2008.

Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) 36.5% LOWER; shares are sliding again today on the back of concerning results from Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS). After opening today's trading session around $1.35, selling in shares of Borders intensified after the price dipped below the $1 level for the first time ever.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: LGND) 35.3% HIGHER; partner GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) granted accelerated approval of PROMACTA.

Brookfield Homes (NYSE: BHS) 32% LOWER; homebuilders are tumbling today; Centex (NYSE: CTX), Lennar (NYSE: LEN), Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM), KB Home (NYSE: KBH), Ryland (NYSE: RYL), Hovnanian (NYSE: HOV), DR Horton (NYSE: DHI), Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH), Meritage Homes (NYSE: MTH) and Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) have all high new 52-week lows today. Astonishing...

GT Solar (Nasdaq: SOLR) 31.7% HIGHER; despite several negative news items today (disappointing results at Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) and a Merrill downgrade of First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) and SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRA)), solar stocks are rising and GT Solar is leading the sector higher.

Foot Locker, Inc. (NYSE: FL) 31.2% LOWER; reports Q3 EPS of $0.18, ex-items, 7 cents lower than the analyst estimate of $0.25. Revenue for the quarter was $1.309 billion, versus the consensus of $1.35 billion. Lowers its FY08 EPS guidance from $0.70-$0.85 to $0.50-$0.63.

AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE: AU) 31.1% HIGHER; today announces that it has entered into a $1 billion term loan facility agreement with Standard Chartered Bank to refinance its convertible bond. Additionally, gold stocks are rising across the board as the commodity has jumped more than 7% as is once again approaching the $800/oz level.

Media General (NYSE: MEG) 29.6% LOWER; in a Form 4 late last night, Harbinger Capital's Phillip Falcone disclosed that over 11/18 and 11/19, he sold about 278,500 shares of Media General Class A stock.

Collective Brands (NYSE: PSS) 28.9% LOWER; after trading in a relatively limited range (atleast for this market) since the beginning of 2008, shares of PSS have absolutely tumbled since Nov. 12, falling about 60% since that date. Prior to the 12th, the stock had fallen only 30% since Jan. 1. Today's move is certainly notable as the stock is seeing unusually heavy volume: it has already traded about 1.9 million times, compared to the stocks average daily volume of 1.55 million.

Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI) 25.3% HIGHER; gold is surging today.

Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) 21.9% HIGHER; gold is surging today.

To get this report daily visit http://www.streetinsider.com/entities/Unusual+11+Mid-Day+Movers.

Notable Analyst Rating Changes 11/21: MSFT, CRM, GPS Upgraded; ORCL, VMW, CPB, DELL, STP Downgraded Nov 21, 2008 09:40AM

StreetInsider.com Notable Analyst Rating Changes:

UPGRADES:
Oppenheimer upgrades Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) from Perform to Outperform with a $22 price target.

Robert W. Baird upgrades Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) from Neutral to Outperform but lowers their price target from $45 to $34.

Citi and Cowen upgrade Gap (NYSE: GPS) to Buy and Outperform, respectively.

For daily real-time Upgrades go to http://www.streetinsider.com/Upgrades

DOWNGRADES:
Oppenheimer downgrades Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) from Outperform to Perform.

UBS downgrades VMware (NYSE: VMW) from Neutral to Sell.

UBS downgrades Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) from Buy to Neutral.

Friedman Billing & Ramsey downgrades Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) from Outperform to Market Perform.

Oppenheimer downgrades Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) from Outperform to Perform.

For daily real-time Downgrades go to http://www.streetinsider.com/Downgrades

NEW COVERAGE:
Morgan Stanley initiates coverage on Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) with an Underweight.

Stifel Nicolaus initiates coverage on Brooks Automation (Nasdaq: BRKS) with a Hold rating.

Morgan Stanley initiates coverage on Wilmington Trust (NYSE: WL) with an Equalweight.

For daily real-time New Coverage go to http://www.streetinsider.com/New+Coverage

Notable Mergers and Acquisitions of the Day 11/21: C, IWA, DISK Nov 21, 2008 09:35AM

• According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, Citigroup (NYSE: C) is weighing the sale of pieces of the organization or the company as a whole as it deals with a plunging stock price.
  
  Thursday's 26% drop in the stock was the worse ever one-day percentage decline, and now executives believe they need to review a range of possible scenarios. Citigroup's board of directors is scheduled to have a formal meeting Friday to discuss the options.
  
  Citi continues to insist that they have a strong capital and liquidity position, but even insider buying from the CEO Pandit, and yesterday's news that Prince Alwaleed will raise is Citi stake back above 5%, can't stop the stock slide - which is at 50% this week alone.
  
  
• Iowa Telecommunications Services, Inc. (NYSE: IWA) announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Sherburne Tele Systems, Inc. for $80.6 million, subject to certain balance sheet and tax adjustments. Sherburne Tele Systems is a closely held telecommunications company serving nine communities adjacent to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan Area. Sherburne's operations include its ILEC services, marketed as Connections, Etc., and CLEC services provided through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Northstar Access.
  
  To fund the purchase, the Company has engaged the Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative as the arranger for $75.0 million in Incremental Loans under terms outlined in the existing Credit Agreement. The Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative has provided a commitment to fully fund the Incremental Loans if necessary. The remainder of the purchase price and any adjustments will be funded through the Company's existing $100.0 million Revolving Credit Facility. The sale is expected to close in the first half of 2009.
  
  
• Image Entertainment (NASDAQ: DISK) announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Nyx Acquisitions, Inc. to sell Image in a transaction valued at approximately $100 million, including the assumption of the company's outstanding debt under its credit facility, replication advance obligation and convertible note.
  
  Under the terms of the merger agreement, Image stockholders will receive $2.75 per share in cash. The agreed-upon acquisition price represents a 299% premium to Image's closing share price of $0.69 on November 20, 2008, and a 267% premium to the 30-day average closing price of $0.75 ended November 20, 2008.

To see all the Mergers & Acquisitions for today in real-time go to http://www.streetinsider.com/Mergers+and+Acquisitions