China Trumps Europe (C, WFC, FRX, PVX, USU, CBRX)

Despite the numerous EU sovereign debt downgrades that were officially announced after the market closed on Friday, stocks rallied following the long holiday weekend on optimism that China could be set for a soft landing. GDP slowed to a two-and-a-half-year low, but still grew a robust 8.9%, higher than economist forecasts of 8.7% growth. China remains a more important linchpin in the global economy than Europe and its woes, but we’re not so sure that today’s news should be greeted so ebulliently, as we think there could be some underlying weakness in China. We’re also looking for relatively weak financial and tech earnings this weak, and think the market could pull back from here as a result.

The Uranium Stocks Index was the top performing tickerspy Index on the day, led by USEC (USU) with a 17% gain. The Drug Delivery Stocks Index was the day’s worst performing tickerspy Index, with Columbia Laboratories (CBRX) down -54%.

Stocks rose on the day, with the Dow up 60 points to 12,482. The Nasdaq climbed 17 points to 2,728, while the S&P rose 5 points to 1,292. Oil jumped $2.01 to $100.71 barrel, while gold surged $24.80 to $1,655.60 an ounce.

In economic news, the Empire State Manufacturing Index rose to 13.5 in January from 8.2 in December, easily topping the 11.3 reading economists were forecasting. The January reading is the highest since April 2011.

In earnings news, shares of Citigroup (C) plunged -8.2% after the bank said its fourth-quarter fell -11% to $1.16 billion, or 38 cents per share, from $1.31 billion, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected a profit of 49 cents. Citi pared its provision for bad loans by -41% to $2.9 billion. Nearly 100 pros held Citigroup in their portfolios at the end of Q3 and nearly 8,150 tickerspy members own the stock in their portfolios.

Wells Fargo (WFC) said its fourth-quarter profit jumped 20% to $3.89 billion, or 73 cents a share, from $3.23 billion, or 61 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts were expecting EPS of 72 cents. Wells Fargo’s total loans grew about $9.5 billion from the end of September to $769.6 billion at the end of December. Shares of Wells Fargo rose 0.7%. Nearly 240 pros held Wells Fargo in their portfolios at the end of Q3 and nearly 2,900 tickerspy members own the stock in their portfolios.

Shares of drugmaker Forest Labs (FRX) climbed 3.8% after the company said it expects a fiscal 2012 profit of $3.65-$3.75 a share up from previous guidance of $3.60-$3.70. The company said its fiscal third-quarter profit dipped -13% to $278.4 million, or $1.04 per share, from $320.7 million, or $1.11 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 8% to $1.21 billion. Analysts had expected a profit of $1.01 per share on $1.18 billion in revenue.

Shares of Provident Energy (PVX) soared 21.8% after the company received a $3.1 billion takeover offer from Canada’s Pembina Pipeline. The offer represents an almost 25% premium to where shares of Provident closed last Friday.

Tags: C, CBRX, FRX, PVX, USU, WFC