Midday movers: BP, Wal-Mart, Target

Stocks are lower again as disappointing guidance from the world's largest retailer weighed on the Dow and sentiment in general.

By MSN Money Partner Nov 15, 2012 2:10PM

Image, Wall Street sign copyright Corbis, SuperStock

Information provided by Theflyonthewall.com

A number of retailers reported quarterly results last night and this morning, but none had a bigger impact on market sentiment than Wal-Mart (WMT). Wal-Mart's earnings beat consensus in the just- completed quarter, but its earnings view for the upcoming holiday quarter trailed the Street, sending shares of the Dow component down nearly 4%.

Conversely, Target (TGT) shares advanced over 2% after its current quarter earnings and its forecast for next quarter's profit beat expectations.

BP (BP) agreed to pay the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history for the Deepwater Horizon accident. The company said the aggregate amount of the settlement is about $4.5 billion, with payments scheduled over a period of six years, which is expected to result in an increase of approximately $3.85 billion to the $38.1 billion charge it took against income as of the end of September.

Among the notable market gainers Thursday was NetApp (NTAP), up almost 11% after its earnings beat expectations and shares were upgraded at Raymond James.

Also higher after their quarterly reports were PetSmart (PETM), up over 5%, and Viacom (VIA, VIA.B), which rose more than 3%.

Among the noteworthy losers was Tranzyme (TZYM), which plunged 75% after announcing a Phase 2b trial of a drug did not meet its primary endpoint. Also lower were shares of Diamond Foods (DMND), which saw Barclays slash its price target on shares to $12 from $25 after the company restated its results for the first three quarters of its fiscal year. Diamond Foods' stock fell 22% near midday.

Tags:

bpDMNDPETMTGTVIAVIA.BWMT

< Back to Top Stocks

0Comments

DATA PROVIDERS

Quotes are real-time for NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX. See delay times for other exchanges.

Fundamental company data and historical chart data provided by Thomson Reuters (click for restrictions). Real-time quotes provided by BATS Exchange. Real-time index quotes and delayed quotes supplied by Interactive Data Real-Time Services. Fund summary, fund performance and dividend data provided by Morningstar Inc. Analyst recommendations provided by Zacks Investment Research. StockScouter data provided by Verus Analytics. IPO data provided by Hoover's Inc. Index membership data provided by SIX Financial Information.

Japanese stock price data provided by Nomura Research Institute Ltd.; quotes delayed 20 minutes. Canadian fund data provided by CANNEX Financial Exchanges Ltd.

Feedback

STOCK SCOUTER

StockScouter rates stocks from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, using a system of advanced mathematics to determine a stock's expected risk and return. Ratings are displayed on a bell curve, meaning there will be fewer ratings of 1 and 10 and far more of 4 through 7.

127	269	462	588	658	615	645	431	263	138
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10

Top Picks

SYMBOL	NAME	RATING
COP	ConocoPhillips	10
NWS	News Ord Shs Class B	10
YHOO	Yahoo! Inc	10
TJX	TJX Companies Inc	9
AMX	America Movil ADR Rep 20 Ord Shs Series L	9

LATEST POSTS

Scary story: the 2013 market looks like 1987

All hail the bull market, which ended the week with a big rally. But it also is starting to look a little like 1987, which suffered an epic blow-out.

FIDELITY VIEWPOINTS

VIDEO ON MSN MONEY

Feedback

ABOUT

Top Stocks provides analysis about the most noteworthy stocks in the market each day, combining some of the best content from around the MSN Money site and the rest of the Web.

Contributors include professional investors and journalists affiliated with MSN Money.

Bing Search

Top Stocks