After Market: A Cold Day for Stocks, Too
With cold weather across much of the country so extreme it grounded some airlines, even stocks found it difficult to fly Monday.
The polar vortex coincided with rough weather for many stocks associated with air travel: JetBlue (JBLU) shares lost about 4.5 percent after the airline announced plans to temporarily shut down its operations in New York and Boston. United (UAL) and Southwest (LUV) both fell more than 1 percent. Package delivery services UPS (UPS) and FedEx (FDX) both lost 1 percent. And the air medical transportation firm Air Methods (AIRM) slid 5 percent.
As for the major indexes, the Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) fell 45 points, the Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC) lost 18 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) dropped 4 points. The S&P has now lost ground in 5 of the last 6 sessions, but the total decline has been pretty modest.
Facebook (FB) gained nearly 5 percent, but Twitter (TWTR) tumbled 6 percent as Morgan Stanley (MS) cut its rating to "underweight."
And investors pulled the plug on First Solar (FSLR). It tumbled 9.5 percent after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to a "sell." It says the company is not positioned for near-term growth. However, Goldman likes competitor SolarCity (SCTY). It jumped 7 percent to a 52-week high as Goldman gave it a "conviction buy" recommendation.
%VIRTUAL-article-sponsoredlinks%Goldman Sachs (GS) itself did pretty well, gaining 1 percent, as financials moved higher. Citigroup (C) and Bank of America also rose about 1 percent, while JPMorgan Chase (JPM) added 0.5 percent. JPMorgan is reportedly prepared to pay $2 billion to settle government charges that it ignored signs that Bernie Madoff was engaged in a Ponzi scheme.
Elsewhere, Men's Wearhouse (MW) rose 2-percent after raising its bid for Jos. A. Bank (JOSB) and saying it will go hostile if necessary. Jos. A. Bank gained 4 percent.
Sirius XM (SIRI) jumped by about 7.5 percent as Liberty Media (LSTZA) agreed to buy the 48 percent of the satellite radio company it doesn't already own. That apparently makes rival Pandora (P) worth more. It jumped 14 percent on the day, and the stock has now tripled in value over the past year.
And the real estate investment trust Gyrodyne (GYRO) tumbled 26 percent, falling to a 52-week low.
What to Watch Tuesday:
The Commerce Department releases international trade data for November at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.
These major companies are due to report quarterly earnings:
-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg.
