TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need To Know For Friday

Stocks sold off in the last hour of trading to close
lower Thursday.
The Dow showed relative strength, with
General Motors

(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
gaining 2% after sinking
to a 20-year low, and
Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
gaining 1% after Morgan
Stanley raised its price target on the company to $38. MRK’s


PowerRating
is 6.
The S&P closed near its lows for December.

Existing home sales fell to an 8-month low,
with the number of houses still on the market at the highest levels since 1986.
The National Association of Realtors said home sales
fell 1.7% to a 6.97 million annualized rate.

Crude oil closed over
$60/barrel. Natural gas fell 3%.

Learning Tree
(
LTRE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

guided lower for Q4. 

Marathon Oil
(
MRO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
,
ConocoPhillips
(
COP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and
Amerada Hess
(
AHC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
said they
will return to their Libyan oil exploration and production operations.


MRO’s

PowerRating
is 6, COP’s

PowerRating
is 5
.
AHC’s



PowerRating
is 6
.

Luby’s
(
LUB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

posted better-than-expected profits, swinging into the black as compared with
a year ago.

Building Materials
(
BMHC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

fell to its 200-day moving average on Thursday and could bounce.  
BMHC’s



PowerRating
is 7
.

BTU International
(
BTUI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

said they received orders worth $1.4 for solar cell production equipment. 
BTUI’s



PowerRating
is 6
.


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Brice Wightman