Stocks Sink as Data Disappoint

Sprint Nextel (S Quote) said it swung to a fourth-quarter loss of $29.5 billion thanks to an enormous writeoff of its Nextel Communications acquisition in 2005. Shares fell 9.6%.

Cablevision (CVC Quote), however, tacked on 3.7% after reporting a fourth-quarter profit of $6.6 million, or 2 cents a share, reversing a year-ago loss.

XM Satellite Radio (XMSR Quote) narrowed its fourth-quarter loss and topped analyst expectations. But shares shed 2.7% to $12.11.

Elsewhere, Moody's put Fannie Mae's (FNM Quote) financial strength rating on review for downgrade a day after it posted a $3.6 billion fourth-quarter loss. Freddie Mac (FRE Quote) had a quarterly loss as well, but it wasn't quite as bad, totaling $2.5 billion. Still, that was far worse than what analysts had predicted.

Fannie gained 2.3%, though Freddie lost 2.4%.

Dell (DELL Quote) closed up 0.5% ahead of its earnings release, which revealed that the PC maker's profit declined 6% year over year and revenue didn't rise enough to meet analyst estimates. Shares were off 2.5% in recent after-hours action.

Among analyst actions, tech names Western Digital (WDC Quote) and Seagate Technology (STX Quote) were both downgraded to hold from buy at Citigroup, and a Jefferies analyst cut RF Micro Devices (RFMD Quote) to hold from buy. Shares of each lost 4.7% or more.

JPMorgan, however, upgraded movie rental outfit Blockbuster (BBI Quote) to overweight from neutral. Still, shares gave up a penny to $3.15 after retreating steadily from a higher open.

Google (GOOG Quote) saw mixed trading after Oppenheimer, Stifel and Citigroup all cut their price targets on the stock. The actions mirror UBS's price-target easing on Tuesday, which came on the heels of a comScore report showing lower paid-click search rates at the Internet giant last month. Still, Google added 0.5% to $475.39.

As for commodities, crude oil surged $2.95 to a record high of $102.59 a barrel. Gold futures spiked $6.50 to $967.50.

"Commodities are basically looking like they're in a bubble," Pride said. "It's definitely very frothy."

Overseas markets were mostly lower. In Europe, London's FTSE was down 1.8% at 5965, and Frankfurt's Dax was off 1.9% at 6863.

In Asia markets, a disappointing industrial-output report in Japan, showing a bigger-than-expected 2% retreat, helped drag down Tokyo's Nikkei 225 by 0.8% to 13,926. Hong Kong's Hang Seng tacked on 0.4% to 24,592.