Stocks, Revenue | featured news

EBay Inc reported holiday quarter results that just beat Wall Street expectations, but the e-commerce company also gave a cautious forecast for 2013. EBay shares climbed 1.7 percent to $53.80 in after-hours trading following the announcement. Expectations were high ahead of the results because sales data from outside sources suggested strong sales growth from eBay's online marketplace and a solid increase in transactions processed by the company's PayPal payments business.

Hewlett-Packard Co's shares plunged to a nine-year low on Wednesday after Chief Executive Meg Whitman warned of an unexpectedly steep earnings slide in 2013, with revenue set to fall in every business division except software.

Stocks struggled after a quartet of blue-chip companies reported generally strong earnings but weak revenue, reinforcing investors' jitters about persistent weakness on the demand side of the global economy.