Stocks to Watch: Amazon, NYSE Euronext

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Amazon.com(AMZN) , the giant Internet retailer , posted fourth-quarter sales below analysts' estimates and said it could report a first-quarter operating loss.

Amazon posted fourth-quarter earnings of $177 million, or 38 cents a share, on sales of $17.43 billion.

The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was for earnings of 17 cents a share in the quarter on sales of $18.25 billion.

Amazon forecast first-quarter sales of $12 billion to $13.4 billion, and operating results between a loss of $200 million and a profit of $100 million, "or between 162% decline and 69% decline compared with first quarter 2011."

Analysts are looking for earnings of 33 cents a share in the first quarter on sales of $13.41 billion.

Deutsche Boerse said Wednesday the European Commission will block its planned $10 billion merger with NYSE Euronext(NYX) .

"Based on its definition of the market for derivatives trading, (the commission) considers the merger to be inadmissible under competition law," Deutsche Boerse said in a statement.

Chipmaker Broadcom(BRCM) beat Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines in the fourth quarter, and gave a solid outlook for the current three months.

Broadcom reported fourth-quarter non-GAAP profit of $395 million, or 68 cents a share, on revenue of $1.82 billion, ahead of the average analysts' expectations for a profit of 65 cents a share in the quarter on revenue of $1.80billion.

Broadcom said it expects first-quarter revenue of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion, and flat product gross margins compared to the fourth quarter. Wall Street expects fiscal first-quarter revenue of $1.73 billion.

Technology firms reporting earnings Wednesday include AOL(AOL) , JDS Uniphase (JDSU) , Electronic Arts (EA) and Qualcomm(QCOM) .

Sony(SNE) on Wednesday said Kazuo Hirai, vice president, will take over the roles of CEO and president on April 1 from Howard Stringer..

Stringer will remain chairman of the Japanese consumer electronics giant.

Last March, Sony signaled that Hirai would be Stringer's successor by promoting him to head consumer products and services, which makes up the bulk of Sony's $85 billion in annual sales, according to Reuters.

Automakers General Motors (GM) and Ford(F) report January sales.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel

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