Google Goes Shopping

Stocks ended a volatile expiration session on a down
note amidst a pending mega Internet deal. Google
(
GOOG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will pay $1
billion for a 5% stake in AOL
(
TWX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), shutting out
Microsoft. Just a week ago, Microsoft was considered to be the leader
in the negotiations.

Energy was notably weak as oil fell almost $2.
ExxonMobil closed off 1.43 at $58.14. Utilities are the big leader so
far this month–up 5%.

Barry Ritholtz, Chief Market Strategist at Maxim Group, said "I
think that people are much more interested in getting out and doing a little
holiday shopping than they are about what’s going on with equities this week. We
had a quadruple witching going on, we had Nasdaq rebalancing and the market had
a hard time holding a bid. Each morning the futures were pretty aggressive
looking–today especially–and here we are negative on the Nasdaq, the Dow and
S&P."

Dow component United Technologies
(
UTX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
gained $0.43–to an all-time high–after a CIBC upgrade. UTX’s

PowerRating is 4.

General Motors

(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) said it sees improving revenues next year. GM’s

PowerRating is 5.

KB Homes
(
KBH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) beat by 0.17, reaffirmed fiscal 2006 guidance and authorized a new 10
million share buyback. KBH’s

PowerRating is 5.

Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) was in-line at
0.19/share.  Merrill upgraded the stock to a Buy. ORCL‘s

PowerRating is 4.

Universal’s (General Electric)
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
"King Kong" turned in a disappointing $9.7 million on its opening night.