The SJC 25 Stock Report, Feb. 5, 2012

Editors Note  – In this feature, we check on the health of the Fortune 500 companies which have a presence in San Juan Capistrano. 

Big week for the big majority of the stock market. Big week for Big Lots. The closeout retailer reported better-than-expected sales for the fourth quarter (3.4 percent instead of 1-2 percent). Its stock gained almost 9 percent on the week. 

Not so big week for big oil. Well, they're on the positive side, and that's always a, well, positive, but their performance looks tepid compared to the rest of the market.

But no one had the least biggest week (hey, I'm trying to keep up a theme) than Radio Shack, whose stock lost more than a quarter of their value! Four analysts downgraded the stock, while the enthusiasm of other analysts is tepid at best (i.e. "neutral").

Even though the market is trying to catch up to the performance of the SJC Patch 25 (yeah, that's what's on their minds), we're still 2 points ahead. For the last three months, our index has gained 9.5 percent, while the Dow Jones is at 7.33 percent, and the S&P 500 is at 7.3 percent. 

Some Business Briefs for You:

Citibank will stop "wholesaling" loans out to brokers effective Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reports. Instead, it will focus on its direct-to-borrowers retail unit. I expect our  with the not-so-coincidental last name will be explaining shortly the shifts in the industry, but I know there are a TON of you who used to be in the biz. If I had a dime everytime I heard, "I used to be a loan processor, I used to be a sales rep, I used to be an underwriter ..."

I don't need no stinking wire report to tell you some big news from Marriott. Our very own for guests, ahead of schedule. San Juan Capistrano Patch, of course, will be there. (Full disclosure, our resident mortgage specialist also has a part-time job with the Marriott as a running coach. Yeah, they've got that, too.) A ribbon-cutting is planned at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Chevron's going solar. It announced it's looking to invest $2-30 million in solar ventures. Whatcha wanna bet they avoid another Solyndra debacle?

JP Morgan Chase announced recently that it has hired a second major executive from Bank of America, Reuters reported. Paul Morrison was BofA's auditor for a decade, but he moved to JP Morgan to become chief financial officer of JPMorgan's consumer banking unit. Here's where it hits you: Morrison's departure is A-OK with BofA because it's in the process of eliminating 30,000 jobs in the next few years. 

 Ticker 

  % Change

 on the Week 

  +10.11

– Financial data provided by Google Finance