Filed under: After the bell, Major movement, Earnings reports, Deals, Google (GOOG), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Genentech Inc (DNA)

Today was another very volatile day with stocks posting triple-digit DJIA losses. Shares opened and traded lower, then recovered sharply before falling back down at the end of the day. Oil and commodities rose. Oil was up over $3.00 to over the $116 a barrel mark on soft inventory levels and reports Russia is seizing a Georgian pipeline. With gold rising almost $17.00 and the dollar falling, it almost felt like the commodity trades were coming back on. There was a drop in import prices, but that wasn’t enough to keep the bears from roaring today.

Here are Wednesday’s unofficial closing bell numbers:

DJIA 11,536.22 (-106.25)
S&P500 1,288.87 (-3.72)
NASDAQ 2,428.62 (-1.99)
10YR T-Bond 3.947% (+0.029%)
52-WEEK LOWS
ANALYSTS UPGRADES & DOWNGRADES

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) saw shares down marginally this day as the stock was down 0.8% at $498.53 in the final minutes before the close. Jim Cramer interviewed Google’s CEO & Chairman on CNBC this day and he brought back that $750 Target.

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) took a beating on another Moody’s debt downgrade. While everyone should have known this data, shares were down nearly 8% at $10.22 in the final minutes ahead of today’s closing bell.

Genentech (NYSE: DNA) was up a tiny more than 0.5% at $98.43 in the final minutes after it rejected Roche’s $89.00 cash bid and offered Roche to choke up more cash.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) managed to escape the hangman after reporting disappointing earnings, recording a loss due to a $196 million charge to cover its technical issues in graphics processors. But a $1 billion share buyback plan compared to its market cap of $6 billion saved the day. This was a key trading alert stock this day and shares were up over 10% at $12.24 in the final minutes.

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Filed under: Deals, Industry, Consumer experience

This post is one in a series on prominent company nicknames. See all 25, and share your thoughts and memories about Crapplebee’s below in the comments.

I first heard the nickname “Crapplebee’s” from my brother, when I suggested that we go to dinner at Applebee’s and he didn’t think it was such a good idea.

I don’t know that Applebee’s is “crappy” per se; it’s more that there’s nothing especially very special about it. It’s very similar to Chili’s, T.G.I. Friday’s, Ruby Tuesday’s, and a whole bunch of other fast-casual chains with “apostrophe s” in their names. T.J. Palmer recently said about the restaurant that “It doesn’t have anything that would make me want to come back.”

What makes that a major burn is that T.J. Palmer is the founder of the company! You can read her version of the company’s history at her website.

On November 29th of 2007, IHOP, now DineEquity (NYSE: DIN), announced that it had completed the acquisition of Applebee’s, with CEO Julia A. Stewart commenting that “We are delighted to complete the acquisition of Applebee’s as it represents an opportunity to create significant long-term value for IHOP shareholders over and above what we could have reached on a standalone basis.”

On that day the stock shut at $52.29. It shut recently at $25.49. That’s a decline of more than 50% since the acquisition: Crapplebee’s indeed!

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Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Deals, Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Wal-Mart (WMT), Home Depot (HD), Market matters, Applied Materials (AMAT), Ideal Purchase (BBY), CVS Corp (CVS), Toll Brothers (TOL), Economic data, Deere and Co (DE), Liz Claiborne (LIZ)

U.S. stock futures were blended Wednesday ahead of retail sales, import price data and oil inventories reports. Analysts expect retail sales, to be reported at 8:30 a.m., rose 0.5% in July. Futures might find direction after the report. Meanwhile, oil futures rose ahead of the inventory report due out at 10:35 a.m., the dollar fell against some currencies and gold futures rose.
[Update: Following a decline in retail sales in July, futures turned lower.]

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) has just reported quarterly results and shares sank 6.1% in premarket trade. The world’s largest maker of farm machinery, said earnings in the latest quarter rose 7% and revenue increased 17% as soaring crop prices boosted global demand for its agricultural equipment. The company, however, missed on earnings and gave forecast that was lower than estimations.

Liz Claiborne (NYSE: LIZ) reported a net loss this quarter but beat estimates on an adjusted basis. It also issued a downside guidance.

Earnings are still due from Macy’s (NYSE: M), among others.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) shares rose 7.3% in premarket trading despite reporting a $121 million loss Tuesday. Investors liked that Nvidia announced a stock buyback of $1 billion and predicted margin improvement.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) also rose, up 1.2% in premarket trading after the largest maker of semiconductor-production machinery forecast better-than-estimated orders and CEO Mike Splinter stated conditions will improve. Its fiscal third-quarter profit plunged 65%, but sales results beat estimates.

CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) said it’s going to purchase Longs Drug Stores (NYSE: LDG) for $2.9 billion, or $71.50 a share, a 32% premium over Longs’ closing price on Tuesday. CVS shares are down 5.3%, LDG’s up 29.5% in premarket trading.

Retail shares such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Home Depot (NYSE: HD) could be affected by retail number today.

Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY), the largest U.S. electronics retailer, will become the first independent retailer to sell Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s iPhone 3G at its nearly 1,000 U.S. stores beginning next month. The prices will be comparable to other places.
Also, a fire burned for more than three hours at Apple’s headquarters before firefighters put it out.

Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) reported steep declines in revenues and contracts for the third quarter Wednesday. The homebuilder stated its revenue fell 34% from the year-ago period.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) could appoint former Viacom chief Frank Biondi and John Chapple, the former head of Nextel Partners, to its board by Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported, as per its agreement with Icahn. The company also unveiled a platform for location-based services, Fire Eagle, for use with mobile phone applications.

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