Stocks in the News: BP, Goldman Sachs, AT&T

Updated

The following is a round-up of news likely to affect stock prices today

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BP (BP) extended Wednesday's selloff in London on Thursday, plunging as much as 11% to a 13-year low. Political pressure has intensified on the company to halt dividend payments and increase clean-up efforts and payments for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP bonds and credit-default swaps are also trading as junk -- as if the energy company has lost its investment-grade rating. Meanwhile, Andarko Petroleum (APC) shares bounced back over 7% in premarket trading after Wednesday's 18.6% slide.

Goldman Sachs (GS) may have a second probe by the SEC to deal with. The subject of this one is its $2 billion Hudson Mezzanine collateralized debt obligation, sold in 2006, according to Bloomberg sources. Goldman Sachs shares have fallen 26% since the SEC filed a fraud lawsuit against the firm on April 16 that related to its 2007 sale of a CDO called Abacus.

AIG (AIG) -- A watchdog panel says it's still unclear whether U.S. taxpayers will ever fully recoup the $182 billion AIG bailout payment, and the government should have used up all its options before bailing out the insurance company.

UBS (UBS) -- After posting its highest pretax profit since the credit crisis began in the first quarter of this year, the company faces weaker second quarter earnings due to a sharp slowdown at its investment bank and lower activity by rich clients, CFO John Cryan told analysts.

AT&T (T) on Wednesday acknowledged a security breach that exposed the email addresses of apparently more than 100,000 users of Apple's (AAPL) iPad. The vulnerability only affected iPad users who signed up for AT&T's "3G" wireless Internet service. Gawker Media lists some big names among those affected, including Rahm Emanuel.

Men's Wearhouse (MW) said late Wednesday its first-quarter profit rose to $13.6 million, or 26 cents a share, from $5.3 million, or 10 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue increased to $473.5 million from $464.1 million a year ago. Shares jumped 5.5% in after-hours trading.

Motorola (MOT) is seeing strong demand for its Droid phone at Verizon Wireless despite the popularity of rival HTC Corp's Droid Incredible, co-CEO Sanjay Jha said on Wednesday.

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) is hiking its quarterly dividend by 10% to 11 cents a share.

Palm (PALM) said it has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by shareholders over its pending merger deal with Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) plans to make its Halo video-conferencing service work over desktop computers and standard Internet connections inside corporations. HP is using technology from Vidyo, which will lower the cost of using the Halo service.

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