U.S. MARKET AVERAGES

Volatile oil held market hostage for another week. Falling oil during the four days of the week took market higher only to face headwind as oil spiked 4% during the day.

Market ignored the fall in durable goods orders for the month of January. The orders fell by 10.2% from previous month, led by 31% drop in transportation orders. The orders excluding transportations were up 0.6% and rose 6.5% from a year ago.

Retail sector was under pressure due to earnings and sales growth concerns related to Gap (GPS: chart) and Nordstrom (JWN: chart). Gap declined 3.5% and Nordstrom lost 4.3% at close. Kohl’s Corp (KSS: chart) rose 5.3% on the news that the Q4 earnings of $1.08 per share topped estimates.

The maker of BlackBerry, Research in Motion (RIMM: chart) rose 6.5% on the news that federal judge during the hearing for patent dispute did not issue an injunction to shut down the wireless e-mail service. The company also received the news that U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued ‘outright and complete rejection of all claims’ in one of the several disputed patents. The long and drawn out patent dispute is not likely to be resolved soon. More than five million people around the world rely on the wireless email service from RIM.


MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Texas Industries (TXPI: chart) agreed to acquire the U.S. butadiene and related methyl tert-butyl ether operations from Huntsman Corp. for $275 million, which earlier this week agreed to buy the textile effects unit of Ciba Specialty Chemicals. The manufacturing facility has a capacity of approximately 900 million pounds of butadiene per year and approximately 11,000 barrels per day of MTBE. The company’s shares climbed 10%.

Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK: chart) reported Q4 net income jump of $452.5 million, or $1.11 a share, compared with $208.5 million, or 52 cents a share, during the year-earlier period. Revenue advanced to $1.75 billion, compared with $942.1 million last year, exceeding estimates for revenue of $1.23 billion. The company’s shares gained 3.7%.

Westwood One (WON: chart) reported Q4 net income decline of $24 million, or 27 cents a share, down from $29.6 million, or 31 cents a share in the year-ago period. Revenue fell to $147 million from $152 million. The quarterly results failed to meet forecasts for earnings of 28 cents a share and revenue of $147.9 million. For Q1 of 2006, the company expects double digit declines in operating income before depreciation and amortization. The stock dropped 18%.

Midway Games (MWY: chart) reported a Q4 net loss of $37.8 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with net income of $17.6 million, or 19 cents a share last year. Revenue rose to $69.8 million from $77.2 million last year. For 2006, Midway expects a net loss of $66 million on a 3% revenue growth of $155 million. For Q1 the company projects revenue of $13 million, with a net loss of $22 million. The stock slipped 10.2%.

Nordstrom (JWN: chart), retailer, posted Q4 net income rise of $190.4 million, or 69 cents a share, compared with $140 million, or 50 cents a share a year ago, beating estimates by a penny. Revenue rose to $2.3 billion from $2.1 billion reported last year. The company expects to earn $2.15 to $2.23 a share for 2006, below estimates of $2.24. Company’s shares fell 5.5%.

ECONOMIC NEWS

This morning, the Department of Commerce released its report on durable goods orders in the month of January, a reading of the demand for goods that are expected to last for at least three years. The report showed that orders fell far more than anticipated

The Commerce Dept. said that durable goods orders fell 10.2 percent in January following an upwardly revised increase of 2.5 percent in December. Economists had expected a much more modest decline of 1.2 percent compared to the 1.3 percent increase originally reported for December.

The report showed that the decrease was largely due to a sharp drop in new orders for transportation equipment, which fell by 31.2 percent in January after rising by 3.6 percent in December. The drop in orders for transportation equipment reflected a steep decline in orders for commercial aircraft and parts.

Excluding the transportation sector, new orders for durable goods rose by 0.6 percent compared to a 1.9 percent increase on the same basis in December.

The Commerce Dept. added that shipments of durable goods fell 1.3 percent in January following a 4.1 percent increase in December, while inventories of durable goods rose 0.3 percent in January, marking the fifth consecutive month of growth.

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS NEWS

Asian-Pacific benchmarks finished Friday session mixed, reflecting strong currencies and weakness on the side of major tech stocks, following a strong performance in Japan during the week. The Nikkei was slightly down at 0.04% on weak exporter issues, hurt by falling dollar against the yen. Among other regional markets, Taiwan’s Weighted index climbed 1%, Shanghai Composite gained 0.6%, while India’s Bombay Sensitive index slipped 0.3%.

European stocks finished higher Friday, supported by upbeat financial news from WPP, Lloyds TSB and Sanofi-Aventis. The German DAX 30 gained 0.2%, the French CAC 40 climbed 0.7%, while London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4%.

OIL, METALS, CURRENCIES