Stocks Take a Spill

Qwest Communications (Q Quote) swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $194 million, or 10 cents a share from the year-ago period. Results beat the Thomson First Call average estimate of 8 cents a share. However, revenue was flat compared to a year ago, and Qwest lost 9 cents, or 1.1%, to $8.16.

PepsiCo (PEP Quote) said it had a fourth-quarter profit of $1.78 billion, or $1.06 a share, up 61% from a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned 72 cents, matching estimates. After opening higher, the stock gave back $1.19, or 1.8%, to close at $63.31.

After the market closes, Broadcom (BRCM Quote) will report fourth-quarter earnings results.

Commodities finished a choppy session with gains. Oil was higher by $2 to close at $59.71 a barrel, its highest level of the year. Gold ended with a gain of $5.50 to $662.80 an ounce, and silver added 11 cents to $13.82 an ounce.

On the economic calendar, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose by 3,000 to 311,000 last week. Elsewhere, the Commerce Department said wholesale inventories fell 0.5% in December. Economists expected a 0.6% rise.

Stocks were falling in Europe, where London's FTSE 100 was lower by 0.4% to 6346 and Frankfurt's Xetra DAX was down 0.6% at 6877. As for Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.4% to 17,406, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1% to 20,655.