Stocks waver on import, currency news

U.S. stocks swung between gains and losses as Venezuela's devaluation of the bolivar drove down consumer shares, while Alcoa Inc. rallied amid optimism about corporate earnings in the fourth quarter.

Procter & Gamble Co., the world's largest consumer-goods company, and Colgate-Palmolive Co. retreated 0.4 percent after Venezuela President Hugo Chavez cut the currency's value in half. BMO Capital Markets said the weaker bolivar will hurt earnings at consumer-goods companies. Alcoa Inc., which is scheduled to report results after U.S. markets close, gained 1.3 percent as record Chinese imports added to evidence that the global economy is gathering pace.

The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 percent to 1,144.56 at 2:33 p.m. in New York. It increased as much as 0.4 percent earlier and declined 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 22.98 points, or 0.2 percent, to 10,641.17, boosted by Caterpillar Inc.'s 6 percent surge on the China trade data.

"Venezuela's devaluation is important on the headline for many of the multinationals," said David Lutz, managing director of equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Baltimore. "Bottom line, the market hates uncertainty."

Colgate-Palmolive, the world's largest toothpaste-maker, said Chavez's devaluation will cut earnings, becoming the first of what BMO said will be many consumer-goods companies hurt by the weaker currency. Colgate forecast charges of 4 cents to 6 cents per share each quarter this year. BMO trimmed earnings estimates for Avon Products Inc., Revlon Inc., Newell Rubbermaid Inc., P&G and Energizer Holdings Inc.

Cosmetics SellerHousehold-products companies in the SP 500 lost 0.3 percent after earlier dropping 2.3 percent. PG fell 0.4 percent to $60.21. Colgate-Palmolive retreated 0.2 percent to $81.32. Avon, the world's largest door-to-door cosmetics seller, decreased 1.7 percent to $30.95.Stocks rose around the world earlier after China, the engine of recovery from the worst global recession since World War II, said exports increased in December and imports rose to an all-time high in a stronger-than-forecast trade rebound that may lessen the case for governments to sustain stimulus programs this year. Exports jumped 17.7 percent from a year earlier, the first increase in 14 months, and imports surged 55.9 percent, the customs bureau said on its Web site yesterday.The SP 500 rose 2.7 percent last week to a 15-month high of 1,144.98 as U.S. manufacturing increased more than forecast and metal and oil prices surged. The benchmark index for U.S. equities climbed 23 percent last year, having rebounded 65 percent from a 12-year low in March, after the U.S. government lent, spent or guaranteed as much as $9.66 trillion to end the recession and financial crisis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Higher Metal PricesAlcoa rose 1.3 percent to $17.24. The company may report profit excluding some items of 6 cents a share today after a year-earlier loss, benefiting from higher metal prices as the global economy recovers. Alcoa will become the first Dow average company to report fourth-quarter results.Intel Corp. and JPMorgan Chase Co., also Dow companies, will also post earnings this week. Combined profit for SP 500 companies surged 62 percent during the fourth quarter in the first increase since 2007, according to the average analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Analysts say earnings at financial companies rose 120 percent, accounting for all of the income increase, and will triple by 2011, climbing four times as fast as the market.'Full Profit Engine'"There's economic momentum, and there's earnings momentum," said James Paulsen, who helps oversee about $375 billion as chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis. "People revised their estimates for real GDP growth during the fourth quarter, which means that profit numbers will turn out to be better as well. If sales start to show some pick-up, then you've got the full profit engine back in force again."Companies from Owens-Illinois Inc. and DirecTV also declined following Venezuela's currency devaluation.Owens-Illinois fell 5 percent to $32.77, for the biggest drop in the SP 500. The world's largest maker of glass containers had $170 million of cash in Venezuela in the third quarter of 2009 and began to move some money out at the parallel exchange rate, incurring a $10 million loss, according to company filings.DirecTV, the largest direct broadcast satellite television service in the U.S., fell 1.1 percent to $33.74.Food, MedicineChavez, working to stem an outflow of dollars and rein in a budget deficit, devalued the 2.15 per dollar exchange rate on Jan. 8 by as much as 50 percent. Venezuela's president set a rate of 2.6 for imports of items such as food and medicine, and 4.3 for "non-essential" products.PG is "reviewing" the Venezuelan currency impact and doesn't expect to comment until reporting earnings on Jan. 28, according to spokeswoman Robyn Schroeder. Avon said it is "looking closely" at the situation.Technology shares lost 0.8 percent for the biggest decline among 10 industries in the SP 500. The group was the best performer last year, rising 60 percent."Tech has moved pretty fast over the last couple of weeks," said Michael James a managing director at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. "It was just a matter of time before people started to sell."AMD, IBM FallAdvanced Micro Devices Inc., the second-largest maker of personal-computer processors, dropped 3.4 percent to $9.11. International Business Machines Corp., the world's largest computer-services provider, lost 1.3 percent to $129.21. Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest software maker, fell 1.5 percent to $30.20.Walt Disney Co. has the second-biggest decline in the Dow, dropping 2 percent to $31.24. The world's largest media company was cut to "neutral" from "buy" at Janney Capital Markets, which said the stock is expensive.Citigroup Inc. climbed 1.1 percent to $3.63 after Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the company's largest individual shareholder, said the worst is over for the third- biggest U.S. bank."Citi has gone through major difficulties," Alwaleed, who is also chairman of Saudi investment company Kingdom Holding, told reporters in Riyadh today. "The worst for Citi is over. I am very positive about the future."The New York-based bank pared a gain of as much as 2.2 percent after Rochdale Securities analyst Dick Bove said the company will post a fourth-quarter loss of 32 cents a share because the cost of repaying the U.S. government was higher than forecast. Bove revised his projection from a previous estimate of a loss of 27 cents a share.