CIT, GM, Red Hat, Textron, Tibco Software: U.S. Equity Preview

By Lu Wang

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may have unusual price changes in U.S. trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are as of 6:43 p.m. in New York, unless otherwise specified.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in March fell 0.2 percent to 869.60. Dow Jones Industrial Average future retreated 28 points, or 0.3 percent, to 8,511.

CIT Group Inc. (CIT US) rose 6.2 percent to $4.44. The commercial lender that ran short of cash this year won federal approval to convert to a bank holding company, a step toward getting an investment of as much as $2.5 billion from the U.S. government.

Ford Motor Co. (F US): The automaker’s debt was cut by two grades to Caa3, or nine levels below investment quality, by Moody’s Investors Service.

General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP US) added 5.2 percent to $1.42. The U.S. shopping mall owner that warned it may have to file for bankruptcy agreed to limit new debt, stock issuance and property sales without the consent of its lenders as part of a previously announced loan extension.

General Motors Corp. (GM US): The largest U.S. automaker’s unsecured debt rating was trimmed one level to C, or 11 grades below investment quality, by Standard & Poor’s.

Red Hat Inc. (RHT US) rose 6.5 percent to $12.75. The biggest seller of Linux software reported 46 percent more per- share profit excluding some items than analysts estimated as budget-conscious customers were drawn to the technology.

Textron Inc. (TXT US) fell 6.9 percent to $14.28. The maker of Bell helicopters and Cessna aircraft said it will exit all finance businesses except those that directly serve its manufacturing units and eliminate 2,200 jobs.

Tibco Software Inc. (TIBX US) added 8.3 percent to $5.20. The business-software developer reported fourth-quarter profit excluding some items of 23 cents a share, or 24 percent more than the average analyst estimate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lu Wang in New York at lwang8@bloomberg.net