12:30PM New York – U.S. stocks traded sideways after losses from Bear Stearns, lower earnings from FedEx, and higher earnings from Oracle, Nike, and Accenture.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20.48 to 13,186.38, Nasdaq added 9.00 to 2,610.01, and S&P 500 declined 3.89 to 1,449.11.

The Commerce Department final read on the gross domestic product for the third quarter was 4.9%. The economy had record growth of 3.8% in the second quarter. The Labor Department reported weekly claims of unemployment rose 12,000 at the end of the last week 346,000.

Bear Stearns reported first quarterly loss on $1.9 billion in mortgage securities related losses and write-downs. The capital market business and prime brokerage business also seem to suffer from the client worries of the capital adequacy at the brokerage firm.

FedEx (FDX: chart) earnings for the fiscal second quarter declined to $1.54 from $1.64 a year ago on higher fuel prices and weak domestic economic growth. The chairman Frederick W. Smith said that the international growth is solid but the domestic industrial production related shipment remains soft.

Second quarter revenue rose 6% to $9.45 billion and but income decreased 6% to $479 million. Operating margin declined to 8.3% from 9.4% and operating income fell 7% to $783 million from a year ago.

Oracle (ORCL: chart) reported fiscal second quarter 2008 earnings per share increased 36% to 25 cents on net income increase of 35% to $1.3 billion on revenue rise of 28% to $5.3 billion. Total software revenues were up 29% to $4.2 billion with new software license revenues up 38% to $1.7 billion. Database and middleware new license revenues were up 28% and applications new license revenues were up 63%. Services revenues were up 22% to $1.2 billion, compared to the same quarter last year.

Oracle jumped 7% or $1.45 to $22.21 in the morning trading.

Separately Oracle founder Larry Ellison controlled Netsuite priced initial public offering. Netsuite priced 6.2 million shares at $26 per share and raised $114 million. The initial filing range for the offering was between $19 and $22 per share. At mid-day nearly 1.05 million shares changed hands and its stock traded between $23.86 and $27.65 price range.

Nike (NKE: chart) fiscal second quarter revenue increased 14% to $4.3 billion and revenue increased 10% when adjusted for constant currency. Net income in the quarter increased 10% to $359.4 million and earnings per share rose 11% to 71 cents.

During the second quarter, U.S. revenues increased 7 percent to $1.5 billion versus $1.4 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2007. U.S. athletic footwear revenues increased 12 percent to $983.3 million; apparel revenues decreased 3 percent to $461.4 million; and equipment revenues increased 9 percent to $68.7 million. U.S. pre-tax income increased 9 percent to $306.6 million from $282.1 million a year ago.

Accenture Ltd (ACN: chart) fiscal first quarter 2008 revenue rose 19% to $5.67 billion and earnings per share increased 30% to 60 cents, and net income increased to $381.3 million from $284.2 million from a year ago. The company also raised its EPS outlook for the full fiscal year by $0.15, to a range of $2.36 to $2.41.

In Asian markets Taiwan, Thailand, Korea, and Australia declined but Japan managed to close fractionally higher.

In Asia Japan left the rates unchanged at 0.5% by a unanimous decision and the People’s Bank of China raised interest rate to 7.47% from 7.29%.

European markets traded higher led by a rise of nearly 1% in the UK. Most other markets in the region closed fractionally higher.


10:30AM New York – Bear Stearns swung to a net loss in the fourth quarter and annual profit fell 90% from a year ago.

Bear Stearns (BSC: chart) reported its first quarterly loss as a public company after taking losses in its sub-prime mortgage business.

“We are obviously upset with our 2007 results, particularly in light of the fact that weakness in fixed income more than offset strong and, in some areas, record-setting performance in other businesses,” said James E. Cayne.

In early November the company announced that it anticipated write-downs of approximately $1.2 billion in mortgage inventory net of hedges. At November 30, total net inventory write-downs were $1.9 billion.