Molycorp Inc. (NYSE:MCP) shares jumped 1.2 percent in early trading.  The rare earth company announced that Chile-based Molymet agreed to buy 12.5 million shares of its common stock for $390 million.  Shares of Rare Element Resources (AMEX:REE) also jumped more than 1 percent.

Shares of Hershey Co. (NYSE:HSY) declined .21 percent Wednesday morning.  The company reported a fourth quarter profit of $142.1 million (62 cents per share), compared $135.5 million (59 cents per share) a year earlier.

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Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares dropped almost 11 percent before the opening bell.  The internet retailer reported fourth quarter revenue of $17.43 billion, which fell short of $18.2 billion estimates.  “We are grateful to the millions of customers who purchased the Kindle Fire and Kindle e-reader devices this holiday season, making Kindle our bestselling product across both the U.S. and Europe,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Our millions of third-party sellers had a tremendous holiday season with 65% unit growth and now represent 36% of total units sold.”  Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) climbed higher on the news.

Despite a 44 percent decline in net income, IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) shares popped 4.5 percent this morning.  The company beat revenue estimates of $566.1 million by reporting $596.9 million for the fourth quarter.

Shares of AOL Inc. (NYSE:AOL) jumped more than 3 percent in early trading.  The company reported fourth quarter revenue of $576.8 million, compared to estimates of $572.2 million.  Shares of Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) also climbed higher.

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Whirlpool Corp. (NYSE:WHR) shares surged more than 10 percent after reporting a 20 percent increase in profits for the fourth quarter.  The company has been cutting costs by eliminating more than 5,000 positions, mainly in North America and Europe.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric McWhinnie at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com

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