Thursday's Summary....

U.S. Markets

Dow -142.96 (-1.15%)
Nasdaq -27.32 (-1.17%)
S&P 500 -17.50 (-1.29%)

News That Moved the Market

Markets Drop On Philly Fed. Sellers dominated the market Thursday, with all 10 sectors finishing in negative territory. The bears took control after the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey came in at -24, showing continued contraction in the region's manufacturing. The reading was well below the -10 analysts expected, fueling speculation that we may not be able to avert a recession. The Philly Fed Survey has recently been a strong barometer of the country's manufacturing activity. With little news expected Friday, look for this number to stay with investors and traders through the start of tomorrow's' session.

Microsoft Opens Up. Microsoft (MSFT, -0.4% ) announced it would enhance interoperability by increasing the openness of its products. The move should make it easier for outside programmers to create applications that work with Microsoft's products, mainly Vista, and ease tensions with the EU anti-trust regulators.

Gold Shines. Gold futures hit an all-time high of $958.40/ouce, before settling up $11.40 to $949.20. After yesterday's higher than expected CPI reading and further weakness in the U.S. dollar, gold was bid up by investors and traders. "This type of inflation environment is one in which commodities thrive in -- at least until growth rates start to falter," said Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global.

Research in Motion (RIMM, +9.0%) traded higher after increasing its forecast for subscriber growth...

Crude Oil fell $0.32 to $97.91/barrel after higher than expected inventories…

Cisco (CSCO, -0.0%) was upgraded to a Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Fed Forecasts Lower US Growth, Higher Inflation...

A new forecast by the Federal Reserve suggests the U.S. can expect both slower growth and higher inflation this year. The central bank cut its prediction for growth to between 1.3% and 2% this year, half a point lower than predicted in October.

The Fed raised the forecast for core inflation by 0.3 per cent, to between 2% and 2.2%.

Earnings Due Today....

COMPANIES REPORTING EARNINGS

• Chesapeake Energy (CHK). Projected to report Q4 earnings of $0.81 a share, according to analysts polled by Thomson Financial. This is a decline of 10.11% from $0.90 earned per share same time the previous year.

• Chemed (CHE). Estimated to post Q4 earnings of $0.88 a share, up 20.14% from $0.73 earned per share same time last year.

• DTE Energy (DTE). Forecast to report earnings of $0.78 a share, which is largely unchanged from $0.77 earned per share same time the year previous.

• Eaton Vance (EV). Projected to report q1 earnings of $0.49 a share, up 88.85% from $0.26 earned per share same time last year.

• Emcor (EME). Likely report Q4 earnings of $0.66 a share, up 64.25% from $0.40 earned per share same time the previous year.

• Esterline Technologies (ESL). Forecast to report Q1 earnings of $0.59 a share.

• Express Scripts (ESRX). Expected to post Q4 earnings of $0.64 a share, an increase of over 26% from $0.51 earned per share same time the previous year.

• Intuit (INTU). Estimated to post Q2 earnings of $0.36 a share, down 19.33% from $0.45 earned same time the previous year.

• JC Penney (JCP). Forecast to post Q4 earnings of $1.77 a share, a decline of 11.45% from $2.00 earned per share same time the previous year.

• MGM Mirage (MGM). Projected to post Q4 earnings of $0.56 a share, up 5.47% from 40.53 per share earned same time the previous year.

• Odyssey Re Holdings (ORH). Expected to report Q4 earnings of $0.92 a share against $0.92 earned per share same time the previous year.

• OSI Pharmaceuticals (OSIP). Likely to report a Q4 profit of $0.29 a share, against a loss of $0.01 per share same time last year.

• Roper Industries (ROP). Expected to post Q4 earnings of $0.75 a share, an increase of 16.72% from $0.64 earned same time previous year.

• Safeway (SWY). Expected to report Q4 profit of $0.68 a share, which is a rise of 11.47% from $0.61 earned per share same time the previous year.

Terex Beats and Guides Higher...

Terex Corp. TEX) late Wednesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $174 million, or $1.67 per share, up from $100.9 million, or 97 cents a share, last year.The Westport, Conn.-based diversified manufacturer said revenue in the three months ended Dec. 31 rose to $2.59 billion from $2.03 billion.The mean estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial was for a per-share profit of $1.40 on revenue of $2.35 billion.

Terex expects 2008 earnings of $6.65 to $7.15 a share on revenue of $10 billion to $10.5 billion.Analysts are looking for a 2008 profit of $6.68 a share on revenue of $9.77 billion.

Shares of Terex closed at $62.21 and climbed 5% in after-hours trade.

TV Ads Losing Effect...Marketers Move to Internet....

62% of marketers believe TV ads have become less effective in the past two years, Forrester Research says, perhaps a byproduct of digital recordings, ad zappers, or our waning attention spans. Conversely, 87% plan to boost spending on internet advertising.

RIMM Raises Forecast...

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) raised its forecast for fourth quarter net subscriber account additions, putting them about 15-20% higher than the 1.82 million net subscriber account additions it projected in December.

The Waterloo, Ont. company said its BlackBerry subscriber account base is expected to total about 14 million at the end of the fourth quarter. Research In Motion said the seasonal slowdown in net subscriber account additions that it had expected in the new year didn't occur.

The company also confirmed its fourth-quarter revenue guidance of $1.80-$1.87 billion and earnings guidance of 66-70 cents a share. Research In Motion, which makes wireless products for the mobile communications market, will report results for the fourth quarter ending March 1 on April 2.

RIMM is trading up 6 to $103.50 premarket.