A House Divided for U.S. Stocks
The bear-bull tug of war continued on Wall Street Wednesday as stocks sagged and gold shined. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 45.95, or 0.42%, to 10,810.91, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 8.75, or 0.39%, to 2,252.01. Larger-than-expected inventory numbers from the Department of Energy sent crude oil futures lower. Oil was off $0.24 at $59.70 a barrel. There were some dark clouds hovering over the housing market Wednesday. The latest, a quarterly forecast by the University of California, predicted that a sustained drop will hit the U.S. housing market next year, costing the nation as many as 800,000 jobs. The slowdown is likely to last several years, with as many as 500,000 construction jobs and 300,000 financial sector positions lost, the quarterly Anderson Forecast predicted. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that consumer credit dropped unexpectedly in October, falling by $7.2 billion, or 4%. It was the largest monthly drop since the Fed started to collect the data in 1943. Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) shares edged $0.05 higher to $8.16 following reports that its board of directors is meeting Wednesday and Thursday to consider a restructuring plan that could include significant job cuts, perhaps as many as 30,000, and plant closings. In other automotive news, General Motors (NYSE: GM) has named Frederick "Fritz" Henderson as its new chief financial officer. Henderson is currently chairman of GM Europe and was president of GM Asia Pacific from 2002 to 2004. Shares of GM fell 2.6% to $21.80. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) are both negotiating to sign an ad agreement with Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) AOL, The Wall Street Journal reported. As well, Microsoft was fined $32 million by a South Korean competition regulator and was forced to sell different versions of its Windows operating system. The software giant said it'll appeal the decision. Microsoft shares crept $0.03 higher to $27.72, while shares of Google slipped 0.7% to $401.91, and Time Warner stock was off $0.13 at $18.12. Brunswick Corp. (NYSE: BC) elected Dustan E. McCoy chairman and chief executive officer. McCoy succeeds George W. Buckley, who resigned to become chairman, president and CEO of Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (NYSE: MMM). Shares of Brunswick were down nearly 2% to $40.68, and 3M shares edged $0.52 lower to $77.18. Gannett (NYSE: GCI) shares rose 1.8% to $60.25 after the company's CEO said he would take a "hard look" at any potential acquisition opportunities, including Knight Ridder (NYSE: KRI). Knight Ridder stock moved up $0.23 at $60.78. J.P. Morgan upgraded its rating on the shares of networking giant Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) to "overweight" from "neutral." Shares of Cisco gained 1.1% to $17.76. SigmaTel (NASDAQ: SGTL) shares were downgraded to "peer perform" from "outperform" at Thomas Weisel. Its stock sank more than 13% to $13.63. Small-cap movers on Wednesday included shares of Spherix (NASDAQ: SPEX), which soared 31% after the company received confirmation to conduct a phase III clinical trial of its Naturlose product for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes from the Food and Drug Administration. Also, Hurco (NASDAQ: HURC) shares surged 20% after the firm reported fourth-quarter earnings of $7.24 million, or $1.13 a share, compared with $2.28 million, or $0.36 a share, during the same period last year. On the downside, shares of Ulticom (NASDAQ: ULCM) sagged 12% after the company said third-quarter sales fell 10% to $15.3 million from $17 million. In commodities trading, January natural gas closed up $0.211, or 1.6%, at $13.70 per million British thermal units. January unleaded gasoline finished down $0.0159 at $1.5676 a gallon and heating oil lost $0.0354 to close at $1.7366 a gallon. Gold gained $3.60 to $517.40 an ounce. Silver surged $0.085 to end at $8.877 an ounce. January platinum rose $3.60 to $998.30, while March palladium closed up $2.95 at $281.95 an ounce. Copper added $0.0445 to finish at $2.0315 a pound
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