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Top 10 News Items 12/19-12/23: AT&T Ends Talks for T-Mobile USA; Oracle Shares Plunge on First Qtr. Miss in 10 Years; RIM Gave Cold Shoulder to Amazon, Microsoft

December 23, 2011 4:34 PM EST
Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:

1. Shares of AT&T (NYSE: T) rose more than 3 percent this week as the company announced the end of talks with Deutsche Telekom to acquire T-Mobile USA. The company will record a $4 billion charge in the fourth quarter related to a break-up fee paid to Deutsche Telekom. In addition to Sprint (NYSE: S) and Dish (Nasdaq: DISH), tower operators were also a winner amid the news.

2. Shares of Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) plunged more than 11 percent on Wednesday after the company reported its first quarterly miss in about 10 years. Reported Q2 EPS of $0.54, $0.03 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.57. Revenue for the quarter came in at $8.8 billion versus the consensus estimate of $9.23 billion. Sees third-quarter sales up 1-5 percent in US dollars, or 3-7 percent in constant currency, sees adj-EPS of 55-58 cents in US dollars, 56-59 cents constant currency.

3. RIM (Nasdaq: RIMM) shares caught a bid mid way through this week's session amid reports the company turned away overtures from Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Microsoft/Nokia (Nasdaq: MSFT) (NYSE: NOK) over the summer. Shares jumped about 10 percent on Wednesday.

4. Data this week showed US GDP growth for the third quarter was revised lower from 2.0 percent to 1.8 percent. Economists had been expecting the number to hold firm at 2 percent.

5. Shares of Mead Johnson Nutrition (NYSE: MJN) were slammed 15 percent over Thursday and Friday's sessions following news earlier in the week Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) pulled the company's Enfamil following the death of an infant which was linked to the formula. An analyst at Deutsche Bank defended the stock amid the sell off.

6. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il passed away on Sunday. With no immediate leader selected to assume the role, South Korea put its military on high-alert in order to prepare for any periods of volatility in the region.

7. Despite lowered guidance from Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX) on Monday, the stock fell only 2 percent on that day, and promptly bounced about 4 percent on Tuesday. The company now sees Q3 sales down 9-12 percent sequentially, compared to prior guidance of down 3-8 percent. Sees gross margin of about 65 percent, up from 64 percent previously.

8. Shares of Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM) surged nearly 19 percent on Thursday amid news the company has agreed to acquire Cotendo in a $268 million deal. Investors cheered the effective takeout of a potential up-and-coming competitor.

9. On the housing front in November, housing starts rose 9.3 percent to 685,000, existing home sales were up 4 percent to 4.42 million units and newly-constructed home sales rose 1.6 percent to an annual rate of 315,000. The XHB ETF (NYSE: XHB) closed the week up almost 6 percent.

10. According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Americans filing for jobless claims fell another 4,000 to 364,000 for the week ended December 17th, an unexpected drop when compared to the 380,000 economists were expecting.


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