U.S. MARKET AVERAGES

Wednesday session was unimpressive in the early going on the absence of a strong market driver and investors locked in recent gains, awaiting the latest petroleum report from the EIA. After the idle start and lackluster trading throughout the morning session, stocks rebounded and jumped sharply higher as the data released showed an increase in oil and gasoline stocks, twice as much as expected. The advance is largely attributable to commodity stocks, particularly the energy group ones. The best Dow performers are Alcoa (AA) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) with gains of 2.7% and 1.4%,

The gold sector has extended gains and is presently up 1.8%. However, the space remains comfortably within a recent trading range. Bank and broker/dealer stocks are showing modest gains as well.

The disk drive sector which has recently been volatile, is continuing falling and is now showing decline of 1.3%. The housing space is easing lower, extending Tuesday's sell off.

King Pharmaceuticals (KG) has jumped to a new 52-week high on quarterly results. Pixar (PIXR) and Hansen Natural (HANS) have reached new peaks on the back of strong earnings rports.

In contrast, Marvel Entertainment (MVL) has dropped sharply to a new 52-week low on earnings release EchoStar (DISH), which has been falling since mid-September is setting a fresh nadir, additionally dragged by disappointing quarterly results..

PepsiCo reduced its year-end forecast and announced it will restructure some operations to cut costs. PepsiCo said the changes will cost $65 million to $85 million before taxes, or 3 cents per share.

Federated Department Stores Inc., operator of the Macy''s and Bloomingdale''s department store chains, rose $2.35 to $66.26 after it reaffirmed its financial forecast for the fourth quarter and reported that its third-quarter profit climbed more than fivefold from last year, aided by a large gain from an asset sale.

Pixar Animation Studios Inc. (PIXR) reported Tuesday a rise in quarterly profit and revenue above Wall Street expectations. Its shares jumped 9.7% after hours on the Inet the electronic brokerage system after ending.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

The comic book licensor Marvel Entertainment (MVL) posted a 29% decrease in third-quarter net income and projected a sharp profit drop, within a range of $0.37-$0.52 a share, in 2006. The company’s stock lost almost 24%.

The insurer AIG (AIG) announced it will have to review its financial results again and will delay its 10-Q filing by five days, after finding errors that resulted in a $500 million understatement of third-quarter results. AIG will restate results for the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, along with selected data for 2001 and 2000 and quarterly financial results for 2004 and the first two quarters of 2005. The company’s stock fell 1.4%.

The animation studio Pixar (PIXR) reported quarterly earnings that came above the estimates, resulted from a higher gain from its film library. The company’s stock soared 6.3%.

Home Depot (HD) was upgraded by the financial broker Piper Jaffray. The company’s stock was up 1%.

ECONOMIC NEWS

Crude oil inventories advanced again in the latest week, according to government data released Wednesday, continuing a recent streak of gains. Stocks of gasoline climbed as well.

The Department of Energy''s Energy Information Administration revealed that crude oil inventories climbed by 4.5 million barrels for the week ended November 4, rising to 323.6 million barrels from the 319.1 million barrels recorded in the previous week. This followed an advance of 2.7 million barrels for the prior week. Oil inventories are 12.8% higher than their levels of the same time last year.

Gasoline inventories posted a week-over-week gain of 4.2 million barrels, the government said, adding to the previous week''s advance of 1 million barrels. Gasoline stocks are now just 1.6% below their levels of last year. Inventories of distillate fuel oil fell by 100,000 barrels in the most recent week.

INTERNATIONAL MARKET NEWS

Asian-Pacific benchmarks ended mixed. The Nikkei advanced 0.3% on tech stocks after three sessions of decline. The tech sector got a boost from news that Samsung Corp. would spend $45 billion on research and development in the following 5 years. Across the region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was the biggest gainer, up 1.4%. South Korea’s Kospi inched up 0.1%, while Australia’s All Ordinaries fell 0.6%.