Stocks to Watch: FedEx, Sirius, UBS, Oracle (Update 1)

NEW YORK --

Shipping giant FedEx (FDX) said Wednesday that fiscal second-quarter earnings fell 12% to $438 million, or $1.39 a share from $497 million, or $1.57 a share, a year earlier.

The latest quarter was hurt by 11 cents a share on lower shipping volumes as a result of superstorm Sandy.

FedEx said second-quarter sales rose 5% to $11.1 billion.

Analysts forecast FedEx would earn $1.41 a share on revenue of $10.84 billion in the latest period.

FedEx shares rose 1.45% to $93.70 in premarket trading.

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Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) named James Meyer as its interim CEO. He succeeds Mel Karmazin.

Meyer is the satellite radio company's president of sales and operations. He also will join the Sirius board.

The board has begun a search for the company's next CEO.

The stock rose 0.7% in premarket trading.

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UBS (UBS), the Swiss bank, admitted to fraud, agreeing Wednesday to pay about $1.5 billion in fines in the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

The fine will be paid to regulators in the U.S., the U.K. and Switzerland.

UBS is the second bank after Britain's Barclays (BCS) to reach a settlement in the scandal related to the London interbank offered rate.

UBS acknowledged that some of its employees tried to rig the Libor rate in several currencies. The bank's Japanese unit, where much of the manipulation took place, entered a plea to one count of wire fraud in an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department.

In premarket action, the stock rose 1.2%.

A Call to Action: The Best and Worst of 2012

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Oracle (ORCL) reported fiscal second-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates.

Oracle said Tuesday it earned 64 cents a share on a non-GAAP basis on revenue of $9.09 billion, thanks in part to new software licenses and cloud software subscriptions revenue, which rose 17% from a year earlier.

Analysts were expecting second-quarter earnings of 61 cents a share on $9.01 billion in revenue.

Oracle shares rose 2.3% to $33.65 in premarket trading Wednesday.

Oracle Soars on Software Sales

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Getco will buy Knight Capital Group (KCG) for about $2 billion after sweetening its offer for the market-maker, Reuters reported, citing people close to the deal.

Getco clinched the deal over rival Virtu Financial after it raised the amount of cash in its cash-and-stock offer that will have it merge into Knight to create a new publicly traded company, the sources told Reuters.

The deal is two-thirds cash and values Knight at $3.75 a share.

Knight shares closed at $3.33 on Tuesday, and were up 6.3% in premarket trading Wednesday to $3.54.

Insurance Stocks Are a 'Glacial' Theme

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General Mills (GIS) posted fiscal second-quarter earnings of $541.6 million, or 82 cents a share, compared with year-earlier earnings of $444.8 million, or 67 cents.

Sales were $4.88 billion, up from $4.62 billion a year earlier

Analysts were looking for profit of 79 cents a share on revenue of $4.88 billion.

The stock was up 0.6%.

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SPX (SPW) is close to buying rival Gardner Denver (GDI) for about $4.2 billion, as it makes progress in securing financing, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

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