Tech stocks power market higher

For now, the bears are mostly out of the way of the stock market, as stocks rallied strongly for a third straight day.

The Dow Jones industrials moved up 179 points, or 1.5%, to 12,552 today. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 18 points, or 1.4%, to 1,367.

The Nasdaq Composite Index had a boffo day, rising 54 points, or 2.3%, to 2,374, as big tech stocks like Apple (AAPL, news, msgs), Google (GOOG, news, msgs), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, news, msgs), Microsoft (MSFT, news, msgs) and Research In Motion (RIMM, news, msgs) each moved up better than 2%.

RIMM jumped 5.8% to $96.76. Google rose 3.2% to $534.62. Apple was up 3.6% to $129.40, and Microsoft added 2.2% to $28.96.(Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

Investors used a better-than-expected report on retail sales as an excuse to continue Tuesday's rally. But retail stocks suggested that the report wasn't quite as bullish as pundits may have wished. The Standard & Poor's Retail Index ($RLX.X) was up just 0.3% today to 406.82. Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, news, msgs) finished up 0.8% to $50.66.

An overall stock rally off lows reached on Jan. 22 and Jan. 23 is in place, even if its progress has been erratic. The Dow and Nasdaq are both up about 8% from those bottoms.

There are suggestions that the upswing could have legs for a little while. The S&P 500 could hit 1,420 -- the level that produced a nice rebound in November -- in the next few weeks before serious resistance might be encountered.

Still, the Dow and S&P 500 finished today down 11.4% and 12.7%, respectively, from their Oct. 9 highs. The Nasdaq is still off nearly 17% from its Oct. 31 high.

A Yahoo-News Corp. combine?

Yahoo (YHOO, news, msgs) climbed 1.1% to $29.88 today on a report in The Wall Street Journal that News Corp. (NWS, news, msgs) might mount an asset swap and partnership deal with the Internet company in an attempt to derail Microsoft's $44.6 billion offer.

The talks reportedly involve combining the MySpace social-networking site and other News Corp. Web properties with Yahoo. Under the proposal, The Journal said, News Corp. would get a stake of perhaps more than 20% in Yahoo.

• Top Stocks blog: Did Microsoft offer $40; should Yahoo have disclosed it?

There was deep skepticism about the idea, however. News Corp., which was down 0.5% to $19.93 today, now owns The Journal.

Both stocks were little changed in after-hours trading. The News Corp. interest came after an earlier Journal report that Google has stepped back from the idea of a possible advertising partnership with Yahoo.

Was that retail sales report really that good?

The Commerce Department report was a surprise for economists, who had expected a decline of 0.3%. The rise follows a disappointing 0.4% decline in December.

Excluding autos, sales also rose 0.3% in the first month of 2008.

• Get free, real-time stock quotes on MSN Money

Consumer spending makes up about two-thirds of the U.S. economy. Sales rose at clothing, health and personal-care stores, and consumers also spent on autos. Gas-station sales jumped 2% last month.

After that, however, the picture was less rosy, said Philippa Dunne of the Liscio Report, a newsletter that uses the data to project sales tax collections for state and local governments. Sales for building materials, furniture, electronics and department stores were especially weak, she noted.

Those, in fact, are areas "most impacted by the housing bust and mortgage mess," MKM Partners Chief Economist Michael Darda wrote in a note to clients. "Our expectation continues to be that the U.S. economy avoids the technical definition of a recession, but growth . . . likely will be very weak."

Retail sales are up 3.9% year over year.

The retail picture for the beginning of February didn't look so pretty, however. Sales at stores open at least one year fell 0.7% in the week ending Feb. 9, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. "With economic uncertainty high, consumers are very cautious in their spending," ICSC chief economist Michael Niemira said in a press release earlier this week.

Energy prices -- New York close

	Wed.	Tues.	Chg.	Month chg.	YTD chg.
Crude oil (NYMEX) (per barrel)	$93.27	$92.78	$0.49	1.66%	-2.82%
Heating oil (per gallon)	$2.6156	$2.5911	$0.0245	3.20%	-1.28%
Natural gas (per million BTU)	$8.3880	$8.4360	-$0.0480	3.89%	12.09%
Unleaded gasoline (per gallon)	$2.3899	$2.3680	$0.0219	3.50%	-4.05%

Coke's bubbling earnings

The fourth quarter was sweet for beverage giant Coca-Cola (KO, news, msgs).

Coca-Cola earned $1.21 billion, or 52 cents per share, a leap up from the $678 million, or 29 cents per share, the company earned in the same period a year ago. The year-ago earnings were hurt by a charge at Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE, news, msgs), the company's bottling subsidiary.

• Tell us: Is 'Made in USA' worth the money?

Excluding items, Coca-Cola earned 58 cents per share, 3 cents ahead of analysts' expectations.

The story seems pretty simple: More people were drinking Coke around the world. Sales rose 24% to $7.33 billion from $5.93 billion, and case volume rose 5% in the quarter.

Case volume grew 7% in Africa, 13% in Eurasia, 2% in the European Union, 10% in Latin America and 1% in North America. The company gets about 75% of its revenue from outside of the U.S.

Coca-Cola has also been expanding in areas other than soda. The company bought Glaceau Vitaminwater from Energy Brands last year for $4.1 billion.

But Coca-Cola shares were down 0.9% today to $59.39. Some investors were disappointed that overall international volume rose only 7% in the fourth quarter -- down from 8% in the third and 9% in the first two quarters.
"The Street may look at that as a slowing down, but I look at it as still very good growth, being led by the emerging markets," Gary Bradshaw, a portfolio manager at Hodges Capital Management, told Reuters. The firms owns Coke shares.

It may also be that the shares are suffering as investors move toward faster-growing stocks.

Chávez cuts off Exxon's oil

Making good on a threat, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez halted oil supplies to U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil (XOM, news, msgs).

But Chávez narrowed his target a bit. He had warned over the weekend that he would cut off all sales to the U.S., calling President Bush "Mr. Danger." The threat came after ExxonMobil won an injunction from a British court freezing $12 billion in Venezuelan assets; ExxonMobil had sued the country's Petróleos de Venezuela after Chávez announced plans to nationalize the company's assets last year.

Crude oil in New York closed up 49 cents to $93.27 a barrel. So far in February, crude is up 1.6%, although it's down 2.8% on the year. Exxon shares were up 1.3% to $85.47.

"The Venezuelan fears seem to be out of this market for now," Cameron Hanover oil analyst Peter Beutel wrote in a note to clients this morning. "It always was a legal wrangle between the country and the world's largest oil company, rather than a disagreement between Venezuela and the United States or its people.

"In the grand scheme of things, the fight between Exxon and Chávez is a small-dog fight," Beutel added. "But it has us all watching while the big dog is licking its wounds offstage."

Venezuela accounts for 11% of the U.S. oil-supply market; the U.S. is Venezuela's biggest market.

Separately, U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration reported this morning. Analysts had been expecting a rise of 2.7 million barrels.

Gasoline inventories rose by 1.7 million barrels, but distillate inventories fell by 100,000 barrels.

Wall St. ignores Applied Materials' profit drop

Chip-equipment maker Applied Materials (AMAT, news, msgs) late Tuesday reported a 35% drop in fiscal-first-quarter profit because of weakness in the chip sector.

But Wall Street totally ignored that piece of the story, focusing instead on AMAT's strong results from its solar panels business. The stock jumped 10.2% to $19.91, the second-best gain among S&P 500 stocks. Also, adjusted earnings of 25 cents a share were better than Wall Street estimates.

Applied Materials earned $262.4 million, or 19 cents per share, down from the $403.5 million, or 29 cents per share, the company earned in the same period a year ago.

AMAT cautioned that "a weak global market for semiconductor equipment" will hurt the current quarter. The company said it expects to earn between 18 cents and 22 cents per share; analysts are looking for 22 cents per share.

"We see the uncertain U.S. economic environment and the potential for slowing global growth to be a near-term challenge," CEO Michael Splinter told analysts.

Wynn hits jackpot with Q4 earnings

Wynn Resorts (WYNN, news, msgs) late Tuesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $65.5 million, or 57 cents per share, a huge improvement from a $55.4 million loss, or 55 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Wynn earned 72 cents per share, ahead of the consensus estimate of 68 cents per share.

• Talk back: Is gambling really all that bad?

But shares fell 7.5% to $110.92 today because profit at the company's Las Vegas division fell nearly 4% to $97.3 million. Daily slot machine revenue fell 5.6% at the company's Wynn Las Vegas casino, to $241 million.

Owner and Chief Executive Officer Steve Wynn talked about the economy, acknowledging that the economic and consumer slowdown had hit Sin City.

"It would be unsophisticated to think Las Vegas is a magical island unto itself, immune from the effects of the communities that serve it and its visitors,'" Wynn said on a conference call with analysts. "In general, we don't see a trend yet, but we're not immune."

Things looked good halfway around the world at Wynn Macau, which opened in September 2006. Wynn Macau had an occupancy rate of 92.4% in the fourth quarter, up from 81.9% in the same quarter in 2006.

Economic conditions won't stop Wynn Resorts from finishing its second casino in Vegas, the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas. It's a $2.2 billion project that is expected to open in early 2009.

Short hits from the markets -- 4 p.m.

	Wed.	Tues.	Chg.	Month chg.	YTD chg.
Treasurys
13-week Treasury bill	2.210%	2.250%	-0.040	18.18%	-29.62%
5-year Treasury note yield	2.692%	2.721%	-0.029	-4.74%	-22.08%
10-year Treasury note yield	3.694%	3.679%	0.015	1.51%	-8.45%
30-year Treasury bond yield	4.512%	4.464%	0.048	3.63%	1.19%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index	76.530	76.450	0.080	1.65%	-0.22%
British pound in dollars	$1.9635	$1.9604	0.0031	-1.41%	-1.30%
Dollar in British pounds	£0.5093	£0.5101	-0.0008	1.43%	1.31%
Euro in dollars	1.4588	1.4584	0.0004	-1.90%	-0.19%
Dollar in euros	€ 0.6855	€ 0.6857	-0.0002	1.93%	0.19%
Dollar in yen	¥108.16	¥107.29	0.87	1.64%	-3.30%
U.S. dollar in Canadian dollars	$1.003	$1.000	$0.0026	0.32%	0.99%
Canadian dollar in U.S. dollars	$0.998	$1.000	-$0.0019	-0.31%	-0.98%
Commodities
Gold	$910.20	$911.10	-$0.90	-1.31%	8.62%
Copper	$3.5435	$3.5695	-$0.03	0.11%	16.52%
Silver	$17.3530	$17.2500	$0.10	1.42%	16.31%
Crude oil (NYMEX) (per barrel)	$93.27	$92.78	$0.49	1.63%	-2.82%

By Charley Blaine and Elizabeth Strott, MSN Money