France and Hungary were downgraded over the weekend, another big bank disappointed to start the week, and the markets seemed to care less as the Dow Jones and S&P 500 each ended Tuesday slightly up.
Of course, that was little consolation to Citigroup (NYSE:C), which sank more than 8% after releasing surprisingly bad fourth-quarter earnings results. The company reported Q4 earnings of 38 cents per share, down 5 cents from a year ago. Wall Street analysts actually expected an increase to 51 cents per share. Citigroup also said it would cut 5,000 workers and cut expenses by up to $3 billion.
Of little comfort to investors were positive full-year numbers: Citigroup’s 2011 earnings were up more than 6% at $11.3 billion.
Also hurting Citigroup — at least by contrast — was the upbeat Q4 earnings report from Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), which announced Street-beating profits of $4.11 billion, up 20% from a year ago. WFC shares spiked at the beginning of the day but ended up only about 0.7% at $29.83.
Another stock getting hammered alongside Citigroup was Carnival Cruise Lines (NYSE:CCL), which was down almost 14% — the market-side fallout from Friday’s crash of the Costa Concordia cruise ship. The death toll was at 11 as of Tuesday morning, numerous passengers still are missing, and toxic fuel threatens the animals and wildlife along the Italian island of Giglio. Shares of competitor Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL) was hit hard, too, down 6.2% on Tuesday.
Three Up
- Provident Energy (NYSE:PVX): Up 21.8% ($2.03) to $11.34.
- Nokia (NYSE:NOK): Up 8.3% (43 cents) to $5.64.
- Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM): Up 8% ($1.30) to $17.47.
Three Down
- Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC): Down 18.8% ($2.38) to $10.27.
- R.R. Donnelley & Sons (NASDAQ:RRD): Down 15.8% ($2.28) to $12.13.
- Brocade Communications Systems (NASDAQ:BRCD): Down 6.4% (37 cents) to $5.41.
As of this writing, Kyle Woodley did not own a position in any of the aforementioned stocks.
