Wednesday Morning Hot Stocks

The eurozone December purchasing managers index rose to a three-month high of 48.3 with private-sector activity continuing to contract across the 17 nations. The Markit data exceeded estimates of 47.9. With a number of less than 50, it suggests a contraction in activity, while a figure of greater than 50 indicates growth.

Don’t Miss: Spain’s Debt Risk Rises Amid Bailout Speculation.

According to Chris Williamson, Markit chief economist, “Despite the upturn, the fourth quarter saw the steepest contraction since the spring of 2009, and forward-looking indicators suggest that a further decline is on the cards for the first quarter of 2012.”

India’s Reliance Industry Ltd. and private equity firm Apollo Global (NASDAQ:APO) are some of the companies in discussions to buy El Paso’s (NYSE:EP) oil and gas exploration and production unit, according to Bloomberg. Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) wants to sell the business, whose estimated value is around $8.1 billion, to help finance its $21 billion El Paso acquisition.

Investing Insights: Gold and Silver Surge in First Trading Session of 2012.

After a months-long search, Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) may be ready to name its new CEO, possibly today, according to AllThingsD. The candidate is a dark horse and someone whose name hasn’t appeared in a previous list: PayPal (NASDAQ:EBAY) president Scott Thompson. Yahoo’s CEO search comes after it fired CEO Carol Bartz in September. Interim CEO Tim Morse and Yahoo’s board have temporarily been running the company since then.

In post-market trading on Tuesday, TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO) rose almost 15% after AT&T (NYSE:T) agreed to pay about $215 million to settle a patent lawsuit. TiVo will receive an initial payment of $51 million and the remaining balance ($164 million) will be paid through 2018 in regular payments.

The settlement also has AT&T paying incremental recurring per subscriber monthly license fees through July 2018 if its DVR subscriber base exceeds certain numbers.

Within days before its collapse, MF Global (MFGLQ) unloaded hundreds of millions of dollars of securities to Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), but they couldn’t get at least part of the cash since its clearing firm, JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), withheld the funds, according to Reuters. These transactions and the withheld money may explain some of the firm’s missing funds.

Don’t Miss: FOMC Minutes: Fed to Publish Interest-Rate Forecasts.

Wednesday’s Trending Stocks

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) shares fell more than 1% in early Wednesday trading. The Internet portal giant named Scott Thompson, former President of eBay’s (NASDAQ:EBAY) PayPal, as the new CEO. Other Internet rivals such as Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are trading flat.

Investing Insights: Aloca Kicks Off 2012 Earnings Season with These Expectations.

Shares of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) are edging lower after the company agreed to acquire Green Hat, a cloud-based software maker.

TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ:TIVO) shares jumped almost 12 percent after the company reached a deal with AT&T (NYSE:T) over a patent lawsuit.  AT&T agreed to pay TiVo at least $215 million to settle the lawsuit and gain rights to use its intellectual property.

Investor Insight: Can the Financial Sector Keep the New Year’s Momentum Going?

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares are edging higher after announcing its members streamed more than 2 billion hours of TV shows and movies in the fourth quarter.  Last year, the company signed deals with companies like Disney (NYSE:DIS) to increase content for viewers.

Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are remaining flat, despite announcing that it will start selling iPhone 4S units in China (NYSE:FXI) and 21 additional countries on January 13.

Dunkin Brands Group Inc. (NASDAQ:DNKN) shares are climbing 1 percent higher on Wednesday. The company plans to more than double the number of its restaurants in the U.S. over the next two decades.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE:CHK) gained 1 percent after it reduced slashed long-term debt by $2 billion over the past year.  Chesapeake is the second-largest U.S. natural-gas producer after Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM).

Don’t Miss: Apple Business Highlights from 2011.

Market Recap

Markets closed mixed on Wall Street today: Dow +0.17%, S&P+0.01%, Nasdaq -0.01%, Oil +0.44%, Gold +0.80%.

On the commodities front, Oil (NYSE:USO) climbed to $103.41 a barrel. Precious metals were mixed, with Gold (NYSE:GLD) rising to $1,613.30 an ounce while Silver (NYSE:SLV) fell 1.44% to settle at $29.16.

Hot Feature: EU Embargo Agreement on Iranian Imports Puts Pressure on Oil Prices

Today’s markets were mixed because:

1) Europe. Early reports that Spain might seek rescue funding dampened sentiment, but a spokeswoman for the Spanish government told CNN such reports were “a complete lie” and “radically false.” But while a purchasing manager’s index showed Germany’s private sector to be recovering, demand for Italian debt declined and Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos warned that if his government is unable to secure an agreement with international creditors on a new economic plan, Greececould be forced into disorderly default as soon as March.

2) Factory orders. Though new orders for factory goods rose in November, business spending on capital declined, the Commerce Department reported today. After two consecutive months of declines, orders for manufactured goods increased 1.8 percent in November, the most since July, on demand for transportation equipment, but closely-tracked shipments for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, considered a measure of business confidence and spending plans, fell 0.8 percent in November following a 0.9 percent drop in October, indicating that businesses may be pulling back on capital spending.

3) Stocks. In a relatively thin day of trading, individual stocks became the center of attention as Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) appointed a new chief executive officer and Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK) prepared to file for Chapter 11. Today, Honda (NYSE:HMC) reported a 19% decline in sales for December, while Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) announcement that it would be shutting down plants and laying off thousands of workers demonstrated the economic reality of a shrinking defense budget.

BONUS: December Retail Sales Popped 4.5%

After Hours Radar Stocks

Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are attracting attention in late trading. Verizon announced at the Citi 2012 Entertainment, Media and Telecomm Conference that it came “extremely close” to selling 11 million Apple iPhones in 2011.

Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) shares are zooming more than 11% higher after the closing bell. The company raised its fourth-quarter guidance and reported a 10% jump in same-store sales. Shares of clothing competitor Hot Topic Inc. (NASDAQ:HOTT) also jumped 7% after the closing bell.

Investing Insights: E-Commerce Delivers Big Numbers for UPS and FedEx.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) shares managed to close the day 1% higher. CFA John Gavin voiced his concerns about the company’s accounting.  He says, “There is a strong case to be made that Qualcomm has a material accounting risk that remains largely undiscounted despite the company having first disclosed elements of it over a year ago in November 2010. This could put investors at risk for a negative surprise in 2012.”

Shares of Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) are bouncing 2.19% after saying it ended the year with nearly 22 million subscribers, which is above prior guidance.  The company saw 540,000 net new subscribers in the fourth quarter.  Shares of Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE:P) are also edging higher in late trading.

Mosaic Co. (NYSE:MOS) shares gained .19% in extended trading. The company announced better than expected second quarter earnings.  Mosaic posted $1.40 EPS, 12 cents ahead of analysts’ expectations.

Investor Insights: Mosaic Company Earnings: Profit Drop Breaks Four Consecutive Quarters of Growing Profits.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stella Mariz at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

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

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