Stocks Race to Positive Finish

Breadth was just about even on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. Volume totaled 3.20 billion on the Big Board and 1.65 billion on the Nasdaq.

"To date, 34% of the S&P 500 has reported by market cap, and 3Q earnings can best be described as broadly disappointing," wrote UBS in commentary released before Monday's open. "Excluding Financials, companies have surprised by 40 bps [basis points] on the bottom-line, by far the worst results in this recovery cycle. Top-line trends have been even more concerning. Only one-third of companies are beating revenue forecasts, with the average company missing year-over-year sales projections by 70 bps."

According to data from Thomson Reuters, 25% of the S&P 500 had reported their quarterly results through Friday with 60.2% of those companies beating the consensus profit view and just 39% coming in ahead of revenue expectations. Those percentages compare to averages of 67% and 55% over the past four quarters.

Among the companies under selling pressure in the wake of their quarterly results on Monday were Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX), V.F. Corp. (VFC), and Advance Auto Parts (AAP).

The FTSE 100 in London finished down 0.22% and the DAX in Germany closed down 0.71% Monday as the European markets balanced worries about corporate earnings releases with hopes of a bailout request from Spain.

The Nikkei Average in Tokyo settled up 0.09% after worse-than-expected trade data sparked speculation about more monetary easing. Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished up 0.68%.

Monday's U.S. economic calendar was empty.

December crude oil futures settled down $1.79 at $88.65 a barrel. December gold futures settled up $3.10 at $1,727.10 an ounce.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury fell 12/32, raising the yield to 1.813%. The dollar slipped 0.07%, according to the dollar index.

In other corporate news, shares of Cascade (CASC) surged 18% after the company agreed to be bought by Toyota Industries for $65 a share in cash, representing a 23% premium over Cascade's average share price for the 60 days ending Oct. 19.

BP (BP), the U.K. oil company, confirmed it's in advanced talks about selling its stake in TNK-BP to Rosneft, Russia's state-controlled oil company, in a deal of about $30 billion. ADRs slid 1%.

Ancestry.com (ACOM), the genealogy Web site operator, agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by European private-equity firm Permira for about $1.6 billion, or $32 a share. The stock jumped 7.8%.

UBS (UBS) shares added 2.6% following reports that the Swiss bank may reduce its headcount by 3,000 to 5,000 employees as part of its cost-cutting efforts.

2012 Stock Predictions and Outlook

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--Written by Andrea Tse and Joe Deaux in New York.



>To contact the writer of this article, click here: Andrea Tse.

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