Shares of Vringo are up more than 31% at $1.77. About 2.7 million shares have been traded so far today, compared with a 3-month daily average of about 120,000 shares traded. The company offers apps that are tightly integrated with Facebook.

MediciNova is up more 32% at $2.50. Nearly 264,000 shares have traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of around 7,700. The company received a favorable patent notice for a multiple sclerosis treatment device.

Zynga is up more than 15% following the announcement of Facebook’s IPO (see our coverage here). More than 39 million shares have traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of about 10 million.

Brinks is down nearly -19% on following clean miss on EPS and revenue estimates for the fourth quarter. Nearly 1.1 million shares have traded by mid-day, compared with a daily average of about 257,000.

Abercrombie and Fitch shares are down nearly -12% following a weak sales report and a forecast that missed estimates by a mile (more coverage here). More than 11 million shares have already traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of about 3.3 million shares.

At about 1:00 p.m., the DJIA is down -0.15% at about 12,697, the Nasdaq is up 0.26% at around 2,856, and the S&P 500 is up 0.02% at about 1,324.

Paul Ausick

Click here to read the seven worst product flops of 2011

Products generally fail because they are either inferior versions of already successful products or they have little to no demand. Research In Motion’s (NASDAQ: RIMM) PlayBook is the greatest example of the former. There was no room for a poorly designed tablet in a market dominated by the upmarket iPad and its inexpensive cousin Kindle Fire. The Playbook was widely panned. RIM publicly blamed its weak sales on competitive shifts in the tablet market, referring to the release of Kindle Fire.

Many companies also often fail to understand consumer sentiment and, as a result, do not accurately estimate demand for the product. When Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) announced it would spin off its DVD-by-mail service in the form of a new service called Qwikster, customers were outraged. Nobody wanted the new site and nobody wanted to pay extra money for it. As a result, it failed before it even got off the ground. The Qwikster blunder ended up costing Netflix many customers.

These are the worst products of the year.

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Gap (NYSE: GPS) and Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) shares sold down sharply in the fourth quarter. Shares of Walmart (NYSE: WMT), JCPenney (NYSE: JCP) and Macy’s (NYSE: M), though, remained steady or gained. This despite the fact that these three are threaten nearly as much as other bricks-and-mortar retailers are as e-commerce becomes a larger part of the retail market.

Concerns about the three weak retailer stocks are very specific.

Best Buy has been unable to thwart Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) rapid expansion into consumer electronics and digital content. These businesses are now nearly as strong as the e-book and print book businesses are for the largest e-commerce company in the world. Like Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), Best Buy failed to create a web presence or online price model that would allow it to defend itself against Amazon.

Sears Holding’s problems are largely different from those of Best Buy. Kmart and Sears stores have not changed much in the past five years. The parent has elected not to commit the capital to upgrade its locations. Sears might have done better if its stores were freshened like those owned by Walmart, Macy’s and Target (NYSE: TGT). Sears management has witnessed how being cheap can get expensive when customer retention is at stake.

The reasons for the failure at Gap fall into another category. The retailer had the instinct to remain on the leading edge of mid-priced fashion. It lost that edge two or three years ago for reasons that are unclear. Gap has been overwhelmed since then by the success of smaller retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF).

The retail industry, like most others, will lose some of its largest companies over the next few years. Best Buy, Sears and Gap are likely to be among them.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn has said more than once that the electronic retailer continues to lose ground to competition. When the company released its latest earnings, the numbers disappointed Wall. St. Best Buy also described the electronics market as challenging. Competitor Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has not expressed similar pessimism. It is Best Buy’s failure to find a large online audience to compete with Amazon that will continue to be its most significant problem.

Gap also posted poor earnings for the most recent quarter. The clothing retailer said it would close 200 stores, or about 21% of its outlets. CEO Glenn Murphy cannot expect investors to be satisfied by decisions to shrink the firm. At some point soon, he will have to demonstrate that he can combine the right inventory with the right marketing to win back the market share that his firm has lost to retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF).

Gap and Best Buy may post such poor numbers in the fourth quarter that each will decide to cut staff to improve margins for 2012. If that happens, the CEOs are likely to go as well.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The largest shareholder in Olympus cuts its position. (Reuters)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) launches its new music service. (Reuters)

Germany and France disagree about the role of the European Central Bank in the sovereign debt crisis. (Reuters)

SABMiller expects difficulty with sales due to slow business in the U.S. and EU. (Reuters)

BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) lowers its forecasts. (Reuters)

Greece starts talks with private bondholders. (Reuters)

PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) directors may split the company into separate food and soda operations. (Reuters)

The head of Aol’s (NYSE: AOL) applications group quits. (WSJ)

Europe’s banks may have trouble with capital. (WSJ)

Fitch warns that U.S. banks may be more exposed to the EU debt crisis than expected. (WSJ)

General Electric (NYSE: GE) starts a $1 billion software program to make products and services more efficient. (WSJ)

Rambus (NASDAQ: RMBS) loses a major antitrust case against Micron (NASDAQ: MU) and Hynix. (WSJ)

Fees that Newt Gingrich earned from Freddie Mac have drawn negative media attention. (WSJ)

Demands grow for the ECB to help resolve the eurozone debt crisis. (WSJ)

Sales at Sears Holdings’ (NYSE: SHLD) Kmart and Sears stores hurt by slow remodeling. (WSJ)

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) hurt by its need to lower prices. (WSJ)

Delphi Automotive sets its share prices at $22. (WSJ)

AMR (NYSE: AMR) and its pilots will return to the bargaining table. (WSJ)

Germany’s public sector lenders downgraded by Moody’s. (WSJ)

China increases its Treasury holdings as some eurozone paper becomes more risky. (WSJ)

A number of alternatives to oil may be lost if the Keystone XL pipeline loses support. (NYT)

Central banks sharply increase gold holdings. (FT)

The U.S.-China Economic and Sec­urity Review Commission says yuan manipulation could undermine the dollar as the world’s currency. (FT)

AT&T (NYSE: T) may sell the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows smartphone. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) is down nearly -9%, at $22.67. Valero and other refiners’ stocks got hit with a narrowing of the gap between WTI and Brent crudes, as well as an announcement by Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB) that it is buying a 50% stake in the Seaway pipeline from ConocoPhillips Corp. (NYSE: COP) and reversing the pipeline’s flow to carry 150,000 barrels/day of crude from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf Coast.

Western Refining Inc. (NYSE: WNR) is down more than -13%, at $13.47, and Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) is down about -11%, at $32.91.

Novagold Resources Inc. (AMEX: NG) is up more than 23.5%, at $10-.89. The company has appointed a new CEO to start in January and also announced that it would spin-off a subsidiary, NovaCopper, to current NovaGold shareholders.

Pacific Ethanol Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX) is up more than 3%, at $1.37. The company announced that it has fully retired $35 million in senior convertible notes.

Amtech Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ASYS) is down more than -17%, at $8.59. The company issued a statement that it expects to post $21-$23 million in sales for the third quarter, where analysts had been expecting revenue of $50 million.

Unilife Corp. (NASDAQ: UNIS) is down about -12.5%, at $4.17. The company priced a secondary stock offering of 8.25 million shares at $4.35, well below yesterday’s closing price of $4.76.

Stay tuned for Thursday. Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank president Sandra Pianalto and New York Fed president William Dudley are giving speeches tomorrow afternoon. Here’s a list of other noteworthy events (all times Eastern):

• 8:30 a.m. – Housing starts
• 8:30 a.m. – Initial unemployment benefits claims
• 10.00 a.m. – Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank’s October business outlook survey
• 10:00 a.m. – E-commerce retail sales
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas status report
• 1:00 p.m. – 10-year TIPS auction
• 4:30 p.m. – Federal Reserve balance sheet and money supply report

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The comparison to today’s report from Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SPB) couldn’t be plainer. Spectrum, a subsidiary of Harbinger Group Inc. (NYSE: HRG) that owns brands such as Ray-o-vac, Remington, Black & Decker Home, Cutter, and Tetra, reported adjusted EPS this morning of $0.47, compared with analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.59. Revenue totaled $827 million, short of the consensus estimate of $836 million. The company’s unadjusted EPS loss for the quarter totaled -$0.65.

Spectrum took an non-cash impairment charge of $32.5 million onnon-cash intangibles in the quarter. That decline in brand value could well have repercussions through the company’s revenue and earnings going forward. After all, in retail sales, brands carry a lot of punch and reducing the value of a brand is never a good sign.

The company going after the bargain shoppers with its Spectrum Value Model, which the company’s CEO said produces “higher margins and lower acquisition costs to our retail customers.” That’s a fine strategy if the Spectrum itself can make money on it.

That’s the rub. Spectrum’s CEO also noted that the company is “offsetting significant commodity and Chinese cost increases through our continuous improvement programs, restructuring and integration cost synergies programs, retail distribution gains, and select pricing actions.” Revenue grew by 4.9% in the quarter, but gross profit only grew by 2.2%. Spectrum apparently can’t keep up with its cost increases, but it has put itself in the position of not being able to raise prices enough to offset those increases. That’s the impact of winning a race to the bottom.

Target’s revenue grew by 5.4%, while its earnings before interest payments and income taxes grew by 9.7%. At Walmart, the story resembles Spectrum’s more than it does Target’s. Revenue grew by 8.1%, but income before taxes grew by just 4.9%.

Walmart survives on its volume, of course — $110 billion in quarterly revenue compared with $16 billion at Target. Spectrum’s total sales volume just aren’t enough to make that happen. So in addition to lowering prices, the company is trying to acquire growth. Spectrum announced on November 1st that it had acquired insecticide brands Black Flag and TAT for an undisclosed sum. The company also raised $200 million earlier this month that the CEO says will be used to close other acquisitions in its home & garden and pet supplies divisions. The company plans to do that by increasing its cost synergies, i.e., firing people.

On a further note, teen and young adult retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) is getting pounded after its results.  This one is down 13% at $48.45 and its 52-week trading range is $45.72 to $78.25.

Target’s shares are up about 1.7%, at $54.09, in a 52-week range of $45.28-$60.97. Spectrum’s shares are down more than -2%, at $24.87, in a 52-week range of $20.11-$36.61.

Paul Ausick

Gold is at $1,771, down 0.63%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed up 0.91% to 19,137.

Japan’s Nikkei closed lower by 0.92% to 8,436.

The U.S. 10-year is at 2.02%, down 0.o2%.

The FTSE is down .76% to $5,476.

The DAX is down 1.06% to $5,871.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) is down 7.76% premarket to $51.35, relative to a 52-week range of  $44.31 – $78.25

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is down 1.34% in very heavy trading to $15.39, relative to a 52-week range of $12.99 – $17.60.

Research in Motion, Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) is up 3.24% to $19.77, relative to a 52-week range of $17.17, relative to a 52-week range of $17.17 – $70.54.

Closing bell. The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 207 points to 12,043.19 (1.75%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 58 points (2.2%) to 2,697.97, and the S&P 500 rose 1.87% or more than 23 points to 1,261.10.

Analyst upgrades and downgrades. There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX) started at ‘overweight’ at Barclays. Career Education Corp. (NASDAQ: CECO), Clorox Corp. (NYSE: CLX), and Rockwell Collins Inc. (NYSE: COL) were cut to ‘underperform’ at BofA/Merrill Lynch; and Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) and Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) were started as ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse.

Market reacts to earnings. Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Fair Isaac Corp. (NYSE: FICO) is up about 25%, at $33.95; Lamar Advertising Co. (NASDAQ: LAMR) is up nearly 25%, at $26.18; Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: OWW) is up 40%, at $2.66; K-Swiss Inc. (NASDAQ: KSWS) is down more than -33%, at $3.09; and Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) is down about -13%, at $48.73.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Medivation Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN) is up 140%, at $39.74 after posting a new 52-week high of $40.15 earlier today. The company reported that an experimental prostate cancer drug reduced death risk by 37%.

Sonesta International Hotels Corp. (NASDAQ: SNSTA) is up nearly 41%, at $30.65 after posting a new 52-week high of $31.06. The company has agreed to be acquired for $31/share by an affiliate of Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE: HPT).

SonoSite, Inc. (NASDAQ: SONO) is up about 29%, at 39.62 after posting a new 52-week high of $40 earlier today. Sonosite is reported to have hired Morgan Stanley to find a buyer for the company and talks are already in progress with potential buyers, including Samsung Electronics.

Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) is down more than -37%, at $6.53 after setting a new 52-week low of $6.52 earlier today. The company today reiterated its forecast for only modest sales of its Provenge anti-cancer drug.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) is down nearly -20%, at $59.51. The company reported slowing sales in Europe, a region where the company had pinned its hopes for growth.

Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) is down about -14%, at $1.75. The company is seeking additional financing and has been unable to get its largest customer and majority shareholder Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) to commit to the financing.

Stay tuned for Friday. The G-20 summit opened today and will continue meeting tomorrow and over the weekend. Monster Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: MWW) releases its October report on US online job demand. We have noted the following event (all times Eastern):

• 8:30 a.m. – Non-farm payroll data for October

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Paul Ausick

The convenience of online shopping and the ability to make price comparisons on the Internet has completely changed retail trends in the past decade. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and other e-commerce sites have already taken a significant lead. Amazon’s revenue in the latest quarter grew 51% to $9.9 billion. If revenue continues to increase at this rate, Amazon will become a $60 billion company next year. That is larger than Lowe’s or Best Buy, and it makes brick-and-mortar retailers shudder.

24/7 Wall St. has analyzed the effectiveness of the e-commerce operations at 25 huge, publicly traded retailers in the U.S. We looked at total revenue for 2010 based on SEC filings. We then considered each company’s web traffic for July 2011 based on data from Experian Hitwise, a research company that measures online audiences. We looked at the total traffic of each company and its share of traffic among the 25 retailers.

This list includes the worst ten retailers in terms of the ratio of annual revenue to the company’s share of Internet traffic among the retailers in July. A retailer with very large revenues but low Internet visits has done a poor job of getting more customers to shop online. Naturally, the largest online retailer, Amazon, received the best e-commerce effectiveness score of 2.1. The higher the score, the worse the performance.

Some of the results are to be expected. Pharmacies and home supply stores such as Home Depot and CVS Caremark do not do particularly well. It seems that although the companies have well-established e-commerce operations and sophisticated websites, people tend to shop for drugstore items and building materials by visiting physical locations. Still, these companies cannot ignore e-commerce, because people increasingly buy items of nearly any kind online.

The most notable result of the analysis is how poorly Walmart did, given its position as the number one retailer in the world and tremendous financial and merchandising resources. Walmart received one of the worst ranks among all the companies considered. Walmart.com is the second most visited e-commerce site on the Internet, based on Hitwise numbers. But the portion of Walmart’s sales that come from e-commerce are extremely small — less that 2%, or $6 billion, according to analysts from Wells Fargo Securities. Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners LLC, told Bloomberg, “Wal-Mart has been lagging in e-commerce, and the loss of two executives won’t help where the company’s going. It will be challenging for them to build the momentum they need.” The world’s largest retailer recently dismissed its two senior online executives.

The Ten Biggest Stores With No Online Shoppers