Google Goes Shopping

Stocks ended a volatile expiration session on a down
note amidst a pending mega Internet deal. Google

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will pay $1
billion for a 5% stake in AOL
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, 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
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gained $0.43–to an all-time high–after a CIBC upgrade. UTX’s

PowerRating
is 4.

General Motors

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said it sees improving revenues next year. GM’s

PowerRating
is 5.

KB Homes
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beat by 0.17, reaffirmed fiscal 2006 guidance and authorized a new 10
million share buyback. KBH’s

PowerRating
is 5.

Oracle
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was in-line at
0.19/share.  Merrill upgraded the stock to a Buy. ORCL‘s

PowerRating
is 4.



Strong sectors
were:  Airlines
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+3.44%     Gold 
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+1.24%     Software
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+0.70% 



Weak sectors
were:
  
Oil Services 

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-2.15%     Natural Gas 
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-1.84%     Oil
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-1.71%                   


Dow

-7.36
10,876.15


Nasdaq

-8.15 2252.48



S&P 500

-3.54 1267.40

Oil

-1.93 58.06

More stocks on the move:


XM Satellite Radio
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  fell
after a J.P. Morgan downgrade.

XMSR’s

PowerRating
is 3.

Tektronix
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beat by 0.03. The stock
was downgraded to hold at Needham. TEKs

PowerRating
is 4.

Darden’s
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 beat
by 0.04 and guided higher. Friedman Billings upgraded the stock up market
perform from underfperform. DRI‘s

PowerRating
is 5.

Adobe
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beat by a penny and issued
mixed Q1 guidance. Brean Murray raised its target price to $44. ADBE‘s

PowerRating
is 8.

Universal’s (General Electric)
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"King Kong" turned in a disappointing $9.7 million on its opening night.

Brice Wightman