Stocks to Watch: Nokia, Smithfield Foods (Update 1)

NEW YORK -- Nokia (NOK), the Finnish handset maker, plans to cut 10,000 jobs globally and close plants by the end of 2013 in an effort to save costs.

Nokia said Thursday it plans to close its core manufacturing plant in Finland, and shut other research and development projects.

The company also said its second-quarter loss from its smartphones business would be larger than expected.

Nokia said it would record additional restructuring charges by the end of next year of about €1 billion.

Shares of Nokia dropped 8.6% in premarket trading Thursday to $2.55.

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Smithfield Foods (SFD) , the meat processor, reported fourth-quarter earnings Thursday of $79.5 million, or 49 cents a share, down from year-earlier earnings of $98.4 million, or 59 cents.

Analysts, on average, expected the company to post quarterly earnings of 53 cents a share.

Sales rose 3% to $3.21 billion; analysts were forecasting sales of $3.26 billion.

Shares of Smithfield Foods fell 4.29% in premarket trading Thursday to $18.73.

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Kroger (KR) , the supermarket operator, is expected by analysts Thursday to post fiscal-first-quarter earnings of 72 cents a share on revenue of $29.15 billion.

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United Technologies' (UTX) said its board approved an increase of 11.5% to the company's quarterly dividend, increasing it to 53.5 cents a share.

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Costco (COST) announced Thursday that it was purchasing Controladora Comercial Mexicana's 50% stake in Costco de Mexico for about $760.4 million.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel



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