Oracle's weakness keeps stocks in check

Updated: 11:55 p.m. ET

Technology shares tumbled today on weaker-than-expected​ earnings from Oracle (ORCL) and were almost entirely responsible for what looked like a weak stock market today. In fact, the market didn't end badly at all.

Oracle, down $3.40 to $25.77, was responsible for roughly half the loss for the Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX), and it pushed shares of competitors lower, especially IBM (IBM). Big Blue was off $5.77 to $181.47 and subtracted 46 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU). The index closed up 4 points to 12,108.

Gold (-GC) dropped a bit, but crude oil (-CL) briefly topped $99 a barrel before pulling back slightly.

Investors did appear pleased by a report showing existing-home sales increasing 4% in November over October, the third straight monthly increase. But the National Association of Realtors revised its sales data since 2007, cutting its tally of home sales by about 14%, an additional piece of evidence of the enormous severity of the 2007-09 recession.

In addition to the Dow's gain, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) gained 2 points to 1,244. The Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) dropped 26 points to 2,578. The index had been down as many as 59 points. Futures trading suggests U.S. stocks will open higher on Thursday.

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While the Dow's close suggests little happened, 20 of its 30 components finished higher, led by General Electric (GE), up 41 cents to $17.69; Coca-Cola (KO), up $1.17 to $69.57; and Chevron (CVX), up $1.76 to $105.43. 

Meanwhile, 330 S&P 500 stocks were higher. More importantly, the S&P 500 finished above a resistance point at 1,242 and, says Toronto money manager Terry Bedford, could rise to as much as 1,260.

The index was led by Cintas (CTAS), up $2.91 to $34.19, and Yahoo (YHOO), up 88 cents to $15.99.

Yahoo is discussing a plan to cut its stake in Alibaba Group to about 15% as part of a tax-free transaction valued at between $17 billion and $18 billion. Yahoo now owns 40% of Alibaba. If that's the case, Fortune.com's Dan Primack noted today, Yahoo's U.S. business is worth maybe $1 billion.

Only 31 Nasdaq-100 stocks were higher. 

Bank of America, Countrywide settle discrimination suit

Even Bank of America (BAC) was higher, finishing up 6 cents to $5.23. Its Countrywide Financial subsidiary agreed to pay $335 million to settle civil charges that it discriminated against minority homebuyers. The agreement is a historic settlement for the Obama administration in the wake of the subprime mortgage morass.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the investigation found a widespread pattern of discrimination against more than 200,000 people in more than 180 geographic markets across 41 states and the District of Columbia.

African-American and Latino homebuyers were steered to more expensive subprime loans even though they were qualified for traditional mortgage rates, officials said. 

Crude oil moves higher; gold slips

Crude oil settled up  up $1.43 to $98.67 a barrel after briefly topping $99. The cause was a larger-than-expected​ drawdown of domestic inventories, thanks to a tax problem. Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates told Bloomberg News that refiners wanted to push product out to limit what they had to pay in ad-valorem taxes on their inventories.

Gold settled down $4 to $1,613.60 an ounce. Silver (-SI) dropped 28.7 cents to $29.249 an ounce. Copper (-HG) finished up 2.5 cents to $3.3945 a pound.

Interest rates were higher, with the 10-year Treasury yield moving to 1.967% from 1.925% on Tuesday. The reason: An auction of 7-year notes did not attract as many buyers as expected. The yield on the notes came to 1.43%; Bloomberg News said traders had expected 1.423%.

The dollar was higher against most major currencies. Two exceptions: the British pound and the Canadian dollar.

Energy prices -- New York close
			Wed.			Tues.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil (-CL)			$98.67			$97.24			-1.68%			7.98%
(per barrel)
Heating oil (-HO)			$2.9176			$2.8592			-3.55%			14.70%
(per gallon)
Natural gas (-NG)			$3.1550			$3.1280			-11.13%			-28.38%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline (-RB)			$2.6215			$2.5840			2.47%			6.86%
(per gallon)
Brent crude			$107.71			$106.73			-2.54%			13.68%
(per barrel)
Retail gasoline			$3.2060			$3.2130			-2.70%			4.36%
(per gallon; AAA)

Oracle: European woes slow decision-making
Oracle's percentage loss was its largest since March 2002; it was also the laggard among Nasdaq-100 stocks. Earnings for the giant developer of database software missed Street estimates because of weakness in its  European and  hardware businesses.

It weighed not just on IBM but other rivals as well, includingSAP (SAP), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Teradata (TDC) and Microsoft (MSFT). (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

Oracle's decline spread across the technology universe. Not even Apple (AAPL) was immune; its shares were off for much of the day before recovering to a gain of 49 cents at $396.45.

Oracle is a bellwether for the health of big corporations, both foreign and domestic. If corporations are confident they buy more, and decisions get made quickly.

The European debt crisis has slowed decision-making in Europe, co-president Safra Catz said on the company's conference call late Tuesday. "This quarter was not as we thought it would be," he said.

The good news (though it didn't help the stock price) was that deals ultimately got made or will get made, he said. And the company has adjusted its planning to account for the slower process.

Oracle's situation also is a signal that companies are planning for slow economic growth in the United States and a possible recession in Europe next year, said Nomura Securities analyst Rick Sherlund told Bloomberg News.

Research In Motion attracts attention -- for all the wrong reasons
Microsoft and Nokia (NOK)considered making a joint bid for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM), The Wall Street Journal reported. The status of the talks remains unclear, the newspaper said.

• Seven companies on the ropes in 2012

The Journal's report follows one from Reuters on Tuesday that said Amazon.com (AMZN) explored making a bid for Research In Motion. Research In Motion jumped $1.26 to  $13.78, tops among Nasdaq-100 stocks, as investors speculated the chatter will result in major changes -- or an outright sale.

What neither story appeared to address was whether Microsoft, which has developed its Windows Phone 7 platform, would be interested in RIM's software or its network. And it doesn't explain Amazon's interest.

Microsoft was off 26 cents to $25.76. Amazon.com dropped $8.17 to $174.35. Nokia was up 5 cents to $4.85 in New York.

Home sales rise -- but from a lower level
Existing-home sales rose in November to a 10-month high, showing demand may be starting to stabilize following a plunge over the past four years that was worse than thought. 

Sales climbed 4% to a 4.42 million annual pace, the most since January, the National Association of Realtors said today. The group revised down figures going back to 2007 by an average 14.3%, putting them more in line with other measures of demand.

There were two problems with the NAR's reports. The trade group overestimated the number of sales by homeowners. Second, many homes were listed on several Multiple Listing Services. The sales themselves were counted at least twice.

For-sale-by-owners accounted for 16% of sales in 2000 and 9% in 2010.

The NAR said the supply of unsold homes fell to 2.58 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 7.0-month supply at the current sales pace.

But CoreLogic said that, as of the end of October, there were probably an additional 1.6 million homes potentially coming onto the market as lenders try to move foreclosed properties.

Homebuilder shares were higher. The Philadelphia Housing Sector Index ($HGX) rose 2 points to 102. The index is up 6% this week alone and 28.1% for the quarter.

Europe's lending binge doesn't add much cheer
Overnight, there was lots of cheer that the European Central Bank was going to lend lots of money to European banks. It did lend 489 billion euros ($645 billion) in 1,134-day loans, the most ever in a single operation, but markets in Europe and the United States were not impressed.

The lending should help solidify the capital of many European banks. But investors didn't see it that way. Germany's Xetra Dax Index ($DE:DAX) and France's CAC-40 Index ($FR:PX1) were off nearly 1%. Britain's FTSE-100 Index ($GB:UKX) was down a bit less.

The reason: The lending program doesn't solve the debt problems of Italy, Greece or Spain. In fact, Spanish bond yields rose today.

French and German bank stocks were lower in New York today.

But shares of big U.S. banks were higher. In addition to Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) rose 11 cents to $32.32. Wells Fargo (WFC) added 39 cents to $26.89, and Citigroup (C) added 15 cents to $26.10.

Nike rises on strong earnings
Nike's (NKE) shares rose $2.72 to $96.35 after fiscal-second-quarte​r earnings beat analysts' expectations. The maker of sneakers and sports apparel reported earnings of $469 million, or $1 a share, on revenue of $5.73 billion, an 18% increase over a year ago. Analysts had expected 97 cents and revenue of $5.63 billion.

Cintas, which rose $2.91 to $34.19, was the biggest gainer among S&P 500 stocks. The provider of restroom supplies and entrance mats raised its fiscal-year 2012 profit forecast to at least $2.16 a share.

Expedia (EXPE) gained $1.04 to $27.89 and was the second-best S&P 500 performer. The online travel agency completed the spinoff of TripAdvisor  (TRIP), which today began trading on Nasdaq.

Jabil Circuit (JBL) fell 55 cents to $19.40. The contract electronics manufacturer forecast fiscal-second-quarte​r core profit between 52 and 62 cents a share. The average analyst estimate is for 59 cents.

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Wed.			Tues.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.0300%			0.040%			200.00%			-75.00%
5-year Treasury note			0.917%			0.859%			-3.68%			-54.51%
10-year Treasury note			1.967%			1.925%			-4.88%			-40.48%
30-year Treasury bond			3.001%			2.927%			-1.99%			-31.20%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			80.35			80.273			2.37%			1.34%
British pound			1.5681			1.5672			-0.02%			0.49%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.638			£0.638			0.02%			-0.48%
Euro in dollars			$1.30			$1.31			-2.92%			-2.48%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.766			€ 0.764			3.01%			2.54%
U.S. $ in yen			78.25			77.83			0.55%			-3.83%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.36			6.34			-0.51%			-3.90%
yuan
Canada dollar			$0.974			$0.000			-0.68%			-2.88%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$1.027			$1.029			0.69%			2.98%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold (-GC)			$1,613.60			$1,617.60			-7.81%			13.52%
(per troy ounce)
Copper (-HG)			$3.395			$3.370			-5.06%			-23.67%
(per pound)
Silver (-SI)			$29.2490			$29.5360			-10.84%			-5.46%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat (-ZW)			$6.1700			$6.0775			0.49%			-22.32%
(per bushel)
Corn (-ZC)			$6.1650			$6.07			1.40%			-0.96%
(per bushel)
Cotton			$0.8666			0.8664			-4.67%			-40.16%
(per pound)
Coffee			$2.1990			2.228			-7.18%			-8.57%
(per pound)
Crude oil (-CL)			$98.67			$97.24			-1.68%			7.98%
(per barrel)