Market News

A handful of better than expected economic reports kept the Dow and S&P in positive territory while the Nasdaq was impacted by Apple's (AAPL) decline.

Retail sales increased by 0.5% to $415.7 billion in December as Americans bought goods during the holiday season, according to the Commerce Department. The increase was the second since November?s 0.4%. Analysts said tha...

Celgene (CELG) was upgraded by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch (BAC) to buy from neutral with a price target of $115, as the firm believes that the company can experience compound annual growth of 25% during the next five ...

Packaging Corporation of America (PKG) announced its quarterly dividend of 31.25 cents per share, an increase of about 25% over its prior dividend in December of 25 cents. The first quarterly dividend of $0.3125 per shar...

By Richard Moroney

USA Compression Partners announced today the pricing of its IPO of 11,000,000 common units at $18.00 per unit. The common units are expected to begin trading on the NYSE on January 15, 2013 under the ticker symbol "USAC....

Petrologistics (PDH) was upgraded by Citigroup (C) from neutral to buy with a price target of $17, as the propane to propylene spread should be sustainable due to the warmer weather.

American Express (AXP) was downgraded by J.P. Morgan (JPM) to neutral from underweight with a price target of $60, due to a potential struggle to regain operating leverage.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's attempts to stimulate the economy through monetary policy may be failing, as the latest producer price index (PPI) presented a deflationary scenario. PPI has now fallen for a third consecutive...

Rockwell Collins (COL) reports its first quarter earnings on Friday, January 18, 2013.

Leading up to Morgan Stanley's (MS) announcement of its fourth quarter earnings on Friday, January 18, 2013 analysts have become more wary as expectations have fallen over the past month to earnings of 29 cents per share...

Analysts expect higher profit for SunTrust Banks (STI) when the company reports its fourth quarter results on Friday, January 18, 2013. The consensus estimate is calling for profit of 61 cents a share, reflecting a rise ...

Wall Street is high on General Electric (GE), expecting it to report earnings that are up 10.3% from a year ago when it reports its fourth quarter earnings on Friday, January 18, 2013. The consensus estimate is 43 cents ...

Analysts are looking for decreased profit for Johnson Controls (JCI) when the company reports its results for the first quarter on Friday, January 18, 2013. Johnson Controls reported profit of 60 cents a year ago, but th...

Optimism surrounds First Horizon National (FHN), as it gets ready to report its fourth quarter results on Friday, January 18, 2013. Analysts are expecting the company to book a profit of 17 cents a share, up from 13 cent...

Leading up to Schlumberger's (SLB) announcement of its fourth quarter earnings on Friday, January 18, 2013 analysts have become more wary as expectations have fallen over the past month to earnings of $1.09 per share fro...

Transmontaigne Partners Limited Partnership (TLP) maintained its quarterly dividend of 64 cents per share. This distribution is payable on February 7, 2013 to unitholders of record on January 31, 2013.

In trading on Tuesday, computer peripherals shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.7%. Leading the group were shares of Radisys (RSYS), up about 21.8% and shares of Qlogic (QLGC) up about 9% on the day.

In trading on Tuesday, shipping shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 1.6%. Helping drag down the group were shares of Excel Maritime Carriers (EXM), down about 6.6% and shares of Ultrapetrol Bahamas Li...

S&P futures are down 4-6 handles this morning as earnings season gets set to start in earnest. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke didn't really say anything unexpected yesterday after the close except that he thinks the debt ceil...

Homebuilder Lennar (LEN) announced that profit for the fourth quarter quadrupled to $124.3 million, or 56 cents per share, versus $30.3 million, or 16 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenue increased by $...

Daniel Loeb, the activist investor whose firm last week disclosed that it bought a stake in Morgan Stanley has started prodding the securities firm about how much it pays top executives.