Stock Market News: CVX, F, ERTS, C, SVU, YHOO, GOOG, BIDU

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) gave a warning that it expects to record lower profits in the fourth quarter, blaming the shortfall in part on weaker margins in the company’s refining business. Analysts polled expect Chevron to earn $1.75 per share on $43.5 billion in revenue. Shares fell nearly 1% ahead of the bell. In other news, Ford Motor (NYSE:F) announced that it will invest another $450 million and create about 1,000 jobs as it consolidates its electric vehicle program in southeast Michigan. Also, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) cut its full-year 2010 guidance yesterday, as ongoing weakness in its game disc sales and in Europe failed to ease up over the holidays. Shares declined about 8.8% before the bell. –Daily Finance

Malaysia’s benchmark stock index could rise to 1,400 by year’s end, aided by an improved outlook for economic growth and corporate earnings, Citigroup (NYSE:C) stated. “The country’s economy and corporate earnings are on the mend,” assisted by the government stimulus spending and low interest rates, Citigroup analysts wrote. “The earnings recovery cycle has only just begun.” –Bloomberg

Crude oil futures retreated from yesterday’s surge to 15-month highs among concerns over China’s ability to drive global economic recovery. Prices fell on news that the People’s Bank of China will raise bank reserve requirements by 0.50 percentage points, which could be read as a possible indication that the central bank is on the way to tightening interest rates. The move caused concern that the Chinese economy may be overheating," –The Wall Street Journal

Supervalu (NYSE:SVU) stated today that its fiscal third-quarter net income was $109 million, or 51 cents per share, versus a loss of $2.9 billion, or $13.95 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Sales fell to $9.2 billion from $10.1 billion. Analysts were looking for earnings of 40 cents per share on sales of $9.5 billion, on average. For the full fiscal year, the Minneapolis grocer predicts earnings in the range of $1.95 to $2.05 per share. –MarketWatch

Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) may want to take note. China’s largest search engine, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), was taken down by hackers and several reports say users were pointed to an “Iranian Cyber Army” web page. The frequency with which sites like Twitter are being taken down is on the rise. Hackers have become more sophisticated and better at breaking into servers which run almost all large sites . Software engineers from North Korea took down a number of public and government sites in the United States last year. Additionally, hackers from inside the nation of Georgia were able to slow the Facebook service back in August. -24/7 Wall St.