What's Hot on the Street

Here's what Benzinga's reading on our friend, TheStreet.com.
What's Hot On TheStreet
S&P Touches 1300, Dow Past 12,000 Stocks advanced Thursday as the S&P 500 touched the 1,300 level and the Dow Jones Industrial Average passed the 12,000 mark for the second consecutive session. Pending-home sales unexpectedly rose in December, although a bigger-than-expected hike in initial jobless claims kept gains in check. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 20 points, or 0.2%, at 12,006. The S&P 500 was higher by 2 points, or 0.2%, at 1,299, while the Nasdaq was up by 10 points, or 0.4%, at 2,749.
Seniors Fear Spending Retirement Income Employer-sponsored plans are increasingly treated as "God-forbid" income sources, "to be tapped only as an absolute last resort under the most dire of circumstances." That's among the conclusions drawn from national focus groups convened by Hearts & Wallets, a retirement and savings research firm based in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The focus groups -- held in New Jersey, Dallas and San Francisco -- focused on investors having a minimum of $500,000 in investment assets and included preretirees and retirees.
Rite Aid, Eastman Kodak: Small-Cap Winners Shares of Rite Aid RAD were surging on heightened volumes after it reported a 1.1% increase in same-store sales. The stock was up 6.3% to $1.17 with over 11 million shares changing hands. Eastman Kodak EK saw its shares rebound from Wednesday's dive following its negative earnings report. After dropping 18% on Wednesday, the stock was rising 4% to $3.87.
Nucor's Upbeat Outlook Greeted With Shrug Nucor NUE, the nation's largest steelmaker, spilled red ink in the fourth quarter -- a narrower loss than was expected -- but offered a more upbeat outlook than it has in recent memory, saying it will return to profitability in the first period of 2011.