TradingMarkets Mid-Day Movers

TradingMarkets just released a proprietary stock rating method called PowerRatings. This method ranks stocks 1-10 and the higher the rating, the greater the one-week historical gain has been.

PowerRatings were created by Cesar Alvarez, Director of Research for Connors Capital, LLC. Cesar looked back at more than 5.5 million trades between Jan 1, 1995 and Dec 1, 2005. The results are based on the average 5-day performance.

To find out more about PowerRatings click here.

Major indexes on see-saw; investors torn between recent positive corporate earnings and unexpected drop in oil inventories.

Crude oil futures were trading down this morning, despite an unexpected decline in inventories; warm weather forecasts for the Northeast helped to bring oil prices lower.

Gold futures were trading up this morning, buoyed by the Dollar's struggle against the Euro and a broad metals advance.

Guidant (GDT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) agrees to Boston Scientific's (BSX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) bid to buy the company at $27 billion.  GDT's (PowerRating).  BSX's (PowerRating).

Stocks On The Move

Ameritrade (AMTD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) Q1 Adj. EPS Inline With Consensus; Closes Acquisition Of TD Waterhouse (full story).

Xerox (XRX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) Q4 Earnings Up 18%; Revenues Hurt By Stronger Dollar; Announces $500 Mln. Buyback (full story).

Hershey (HSY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) Q4 Profit Rises On Organic Sales Growth; Reaffirms FY06 Outlook (full story).

WellPoint (WLP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) Q4 Profit Soars On Higher Sales, Membership Enrolments; Raises FY06 EPS Target (full story).

Economic News

Get your stock's PowerRatings here.