5 High Yield Stocks To Watch

Stocks are lower on higher oil
and a tech downgrade.

CSFB cut Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
to to underperform from outperform, citing
slowing PC growth and shares loss to AMD. Oil hit 50.25, and traders speculated
if high oil could potentially put the brakes on the usual year-end rally.

October existing home sales fell -0.1% to 6.75 million units, less than
expected.

Heinz
(
HNZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
missed by 0.03, although it did post a higher
quarterly profit. The company said earnings for the year would be at the low end
of estimates.

Hewlett Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said planned job cuts in 2005 would cost
$200 million–about 4 cents per share.

Deere
(
DE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
reported $1.41 vs. estimates ranging from 0.69 -1.11;
revenues rose 32%.

Gold is at a 16-year high. The new gold ETF, StreetTRACKS Gold
(
GLD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

has seen inflows of  $1.3 billion in its first 3 days of trading.

AIG said it was near a deal with regulators on PNC Financial and
Brightpoint.

Time Warner
(
TWX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
will pay $750 million to settle accounting
irregularities at its AOL unit.

The Euro hit another record against the dollar.

CBS anchor Dan Rather will step down in March, but will stay on as
correspondent.

Looking for yield? These are the highest-yielding
utility stocks:

Stock Symbol Yield
Duquesne Light
 
(
DQE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
5.57%
Great Plains
Energy

(
GXP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
5.52%
Progress Energy
(
PGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
5.41%
Ameren  
(
AEE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
5.20%
Teco Energy  
(
TE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
5.12%

High fuel costs getting you down? Consider
American Airlines
, which will spend an additional $1.2 billion on fuel this
year.

One in five Europeans said they will will reject American brands as a protest
against U.S foreign policy.

In foreign markets, the Hang Seng is making a 3
1/2 year high.

Dow -42.34 10447.08
S&P 500 -4.74 1172.50
Nasdaq -14.55 2070.64

Strong sectors are: Oil
Services

(
OSX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.93%, Oil
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.86%,
Insurance

(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.87%.

Weak are: Biotech
(
BTK.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

-1.60%, Gold
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.34%, Semis
(
SOX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-1.20%.

The dollar is -0.23 at 82.96

Gold is +1.10 to 447.80

Crude Oil is +1.29 at 49.93

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume is 608 million on the NYSE and
1.03 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth is negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 1350 Up Vol 222
Declining 1769 Down Vol 318
Ratio 1.31 1.43
Nasdaq
Advancing 1149 Up Vol 520
Declining 1792 Down Vol 455
Ratio 1.55 1.14

Stocks in the News

TiVo (TIVO)
reported a wider Q3 loss of (0.33), better than expectations for a loss of
(0.44). Revenue was $38 million, down 11%. The company added 419,000 new
subscribers in the third quarter.

Computer Associates
(
CA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
named IBM software head John Swainson as
CEO, replacing Kenneth Kron.

Wachovia reduced Express Scripts
(
ESRX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
to underperform.

YUM Brands
(
YUM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
was added to the Focus List at Morgan Stanley.
The broker said that YUM is a good China play.

Bank of America upgraded Abercrombie & Fitch
(
ANF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
to buy from
neutral.

Lehman lowered Bed Bath and Beyond
(
BBBY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
.

Texas Utilities
(
TXU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
will repurchase 52.5 million shares and will
issue debt to raise cash.

 

This day in history…

1899 first jukebox

1936 Life magazine debuted

1963 Lyndon B. Johnson took office following JFK assassination

Brice Wightman