By Stockpickr Staff
Posted on May 27
A General Motors (GM) bankruptcy is even more likely after the company failed to meet the requirements of its debt-exchange offer, which expired at midnight on Tuesday. GM had hoped that bondholders would exchange $27 billion in debt for company stock. The company has till Monday to complete its government-ordered restructuring, or bankruptcy it is.
Bank of America (BAC) has raised almost $26 billion in capital, more than three quarters of the amount the government instructed it to raise following the banking stress tests. Capital-raising measures have included issuing 1.25 billion new common shares and selling some of its holdings in China Construction Bank.
Also raising capital is PNC Financial (PNC), which sold 15 million common shares to raise more than $600 million.
Staples (SPLS) reported first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, with profit down 33% to $143 million, or 20 cents a share, compared with $212.3 million, or 30 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Also reporting earnings was Dollar Tree (DLTR), which gained 39% in first-quarter earnings and 14% in sales. The retailer earned $60.4 million, or 66 cents a share, up from $43.6 million, or 48 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.
With this in mind, we thought we'd take a look at some of the stocks making headlines and see what Jim Cramer's had to say about them lately.
In a recent post to his RealMoney blog, Cramer wrote:
"As usual, you can thank oil for driving the market higher, as I do not think it could hold just from the tech moves. However, we have a reminder of how much this market likes tech when you see a couple of upgrades in Apple (AAPL) -- the most talked-about upgrade in ages -- and the B (QCOM) earnings boost by Barclays.
"That then springs Google (GOOG), which I have said is having an excellent quarter, and Amazon (AMZN), which never fails to go up when there's a tech rally.
"What's going on here? It's not just consumer confidence, although that's a nice reason to rally. It's the sense that the tech world is stronger than expected and estimates remain too low.
We have an added bonus today: drugs ramping and banks hanging in.
"All in all, a real rebound out of nowhere -- augmented, once again, by mutual fund Monday, when the money keeps pouring in over the transom and finds itself immediately transferred into the stock market's winners courtesy the winning mutual funds it goes to.
"Random musing: Nice move on Cisco (CSCO) as a carry up of part of a tech rally. Good that it can join the fray. ... Have you noticed that the investment banking business is flowing domestically? Bank of America, Wells Fargo (WFC), JPMorgan (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) seem to be in on every deal. And with Lehman gone (replaced by a British bank) and Bear out of the picture, the money's going to fewer, better hands. I am still expecting upside surprises from all of the remaining major American banks and brokerages."
(Editor's note: At the time of publication and/or original publication of his posts and shows, Cramer owned Qualcomm, Cisco, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan for his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust.)
