![]()
- BlackRock: Central Banks To Be Net Buyers of Gold
- Lowe's Meets Third-Quarter Profit Expectations
- There's a Gold Bubble: Gartman
- Cisco Ups Tandberg Bid, Claims Over 40% Backing
- 'Significant Weakness' Still Ahead: Fed's Hoenig
- Stronger Yuan Needed for Global Rebalancing: IMF Chief
- Small U.S. Cities Lose Luster in Downturn
- Washington Not Trying to Contain China: Obama
- How Much Do You Know About Green?
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: 'I Haven't Bought American Express In Years'
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- U.S. Stocks Rally for the Second Straight Week
- Dollar is Not Plunging—So 'Calm Down': Market Strategist
- Strategists Say Markets Have More Upside — But How Much?
- Hirschhorn: Risk-Averse Traders
- Roginsky: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Financial Reform
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
MOST SHARED
- U.S. May Wind Up Green With Envy
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: 'I Haven't Bought American Express In Years'
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- EADS Cautious on Full-Year Forecast after Earnings Dip
- Taking a Page from Obama's Asia Agenda in Investing
- Stronger Yuan Needed for Global Rebalancing: IMF Chief
- JP Morgan to Bid Over $3 Billion for Cazenove Stake
- Washington Not Trying to Contain China: Obama
- Signs of Stability, but 'We're Not All Satisfied': GM CEO
Stocks wobbled Tuesday, paring some gains, though the tech-heavy Nasdaq remained higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was torn by a tug-of-war: Microsoft [MSFT
Loading...
()
], ExxonMobil [XOM
Loading...
()
] and Chevron [CVX
Loading...
()
] at the top end, and Alcoa [AA
Loading...
()
], General Electric [GE
Loading...
()
] and Bank of America [BAC
Loading...
()
] dragging at the bottom.
Investors started the week focused on earnings, and Alcoa kicked things off with a thud: The aluminum maker, which is slashing 15,000 jobs, reported a loss of $1.19 billion and a 19-percent drop in sales, falling well short of expectations.
Meanwhile, Citigroup shares [C
Loading...
()
] wavered after an earlier dive amid concerns over its earnings and its plans to shed its brokerage unit as part of a deal with Morgan Stanley [MS
Loading...
()
]. Barring any last-minute glitches, a deal is expected to be announced after the bell today. Investors had been dumping Citi shares since Monday amid concerns that the Morgan Stanley deal won't fix the bank's capital needs.
Analysts expect this could be the quarter when banks post their first collective loss since 1990.
JPMorgan [MS
Loading...
()
] bumped up its earnings, which are now due out Thursday; analysts expect earnings of 2 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial.
Fellow Dow component Intel [INTC
Loading...
()
] also reports on Thursday; analysts peg earnings at 5 cents a share.
ExxonMobil [XOM
Loading...
()
] and Chevron [CVX
Loading...
()
] gained more than 1 percent as crude oil ticked higher, topping $38 a barrel. [US@CL.1
Loading...
()
]
General Electric shares tumbled after an analyst said the conglomerate's profit may be relying more heavily on tax benefits that Wall Street expects. Barclays analyst Robert Cornell said as much as 20 cents of GE's profit, expected to be in the 36 to 42-cent-per-share range, could come from tax benefits.
Pfizer shares [PFE
Loading...
()
] ticked higher following a report in the Wall Street Journal that the pharmaceutical giant plans to lay off 800 researchers.
In economic news, the trade deficit shrank nearly 29 percent in November, the biggest contraction in 12 years, as weak consumer demand and plummeting oil prices caused a record drop in imports, the Commerce Department reported.
Meanwhile, the market got a boost from President-elect Obama's request for Congress to release the remaining $350 billion TARP funds, and from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's comment that the government will have to do more to backstop banks.
Meanwhile the Bernard Madoff scandal continued to reverberate across the globe, with Spain investigating Banco Santander's loss of more than $2.9 billion of its clients' money, the Wall Street Journal reported.
This Week:
TUESDAY: Lacker speaks; Detroit Auto Show (Jan. 11-25)
WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage applications; retail sales; import/export prices; business inventories; weekly crude inventories; Fed's Stern speaks; Earnings from Xilinx
THURSDAY: ECB announcement; PPI; weekly jobless claims; Philadelphia, NY Fed surveys; Fed's beige book; Earnings from JPMorgan, Genentech, Intel
FRIDAY: CPI; industrial output; consumer sentiment; Fed's Lacker speaks
- Where, what, how.
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
- For the chief of cable company Comcast, growth has been about making deals – generally very large deals.
- Some companies may start using insurance to shift carbon risk from their balance sheets to maybe... yours?
- The president and founder of Genesis Today wants to improve America’s health, and thinks Wal-Mart can help.
- If a terrible driver on you morning commute has you feeling like you want to scream, check out this website.












