Light Trading Day Ends Modestly Higher

Despite the first drop in holiday retail sales in approximately forty years, a light trading day ended modestly higher with the Dow gaining 47 points to 8516 after GM's financial unit received approval to convert to a bank holding company making GMAC eligible to apply for the government lending program.  Nasdaq added 5 points to 1530.

On the upside

Hedge fund Steelehead Partners continued to focus on coal companies by maintaining its stake in James River Coal (Nasdaq: JRCC).

The Wall Street Journal reported that the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) was seeking to sell its 17.5% stake in New England Sports Ventures, which owns the Boston Red Sox.

After swinging to a third quarter loss, Sprint (NYSE: S) increased its advertising budget and is poised to spend more than its larger rivals.

On the downside

Motley Fool called Applied Material (Nasdaq: AMAT) a value stock because the price has fallen more than half from its 52-week high.  Analysts believe it has reached the bottom.

Motley Food cited Goldman Sachs' (NYSE: GS) conversion to a bank as one reason to sell the stock because of competition from Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC).

Shares of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI) fell after SpendingPulse reported a sharp 27% drop in electronic and appliance sales during the holidays.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 2 on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 6 points to 477.