Company/EPS Estimate
- (LUB)/.07
- (CBK)/.28
Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGO): The financial guarantor raised $318 million in a sale of common shares to help its bond- insurance unit to take advantage of demand for reinsurance from rival financial guarantors. The company sold 12.5 million shares at $25.50 each, according to a statement. The shares rose 10 cents to $27.64 in regular trading yesterday.
Citigroup Inc. (C) fell 68 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $29.77 before the official open of U.S. exchanges. The biggest U.S. bank may cut its dividend by 40 percent to preserve capital and write off $18.7 billion in collateralized debt obligations such as subprime mortgages, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Mirant Corp. (MIR): Harbert Management Corp. owned 5.9 percent of Mirant, becoming the biggest shareholder in the owner of power plants, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The stock fell 12 cents to $39.07 in regular trading yesterday.
SLM Corp. (SLM) slumped $2.38, or 11 percent, to $19.75. The biggest U.S. educational lender said it was commencing $2.5 billion in offerings of common and preferred shares, mainly to raise money for settling contracts to buy back shares.
Sotheby's (BID): The world's second-largest auction house sold about 46 percent more art this year as U.S., Russian and Asian collectors bid up prices for contemporary artists such as Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons. Art auctions in 2007 totaled $5.33 billion, up from $3.66 billion a year earlier, according to preliminary figures on Sotheby's Web site. The shares rose 30 cents to $41.43 yesterday.
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) fell 41 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $30.85. The second-largest U.S. mortgage lender may be riskier than investors previously thought, as the bank has been forced to write down some home-equity loans and more bad news may be coming, the Wall Street Journal said in its ``Heard on the Street'' column.
Watch BG, MON, LNN, UNH, ABT for long breakouts.
Watch BDK, IHP, KMT, XL, STU for short breakdowns.
-MM
