NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Investors will try to find a way to keep stocks from sliding Tuesday after Wall Street finished Monday's trading on the upside.
Bullish investors will even skip a few days to seek directions from Friday's all-important payrolls report as the U.S. economy has been strengthening, but the sluggish job market has remained a sore spot in the recovery.
As things stand right now, economists predict 125,000 new jobs were created in February. But after three months of jobs numbers well below Wall Street estimates, it is anyone's guess what the actual figure will be.
After the closing bell Monday, Lockheed Martin said chairman and CEO Vance Coffman plans to retire this summer after 37 years with the defense contractor.
Coffman, who will turn 60 next month, "informed the board last week, and then the board selected Bob Stevens as his successor," said Lockheed spokesman Tom Jurkowsky.
"Coffman continues to have the full confidence of the board. Coffman's decision to retire was a personal choice. He's ready to move on to the next stage of his life," Jurkowsky said.
Coffman's 37-year tenure with Lockheed has spanned several major conflicts and the end of the Cold War.
Shares of Lockheed (LMT: Research, Estimates) fell 5 cents to close at $46.23 before the closing. The decision was announced after the markets closed. In after-hours trading, the shares fell another 5 cents.
In another corporate reshuffle, Black & Decker (BDK: Research, Estimates) said it reorganized its power tool and accessories business into two separate groups in an effort aimed at bringing sharper focus to the company's namesake and DeWalt brands.
The maker of DeWalt drills, Kwikset locks and Price Pfister faucets said Thomas Koos, 40, has been named group vice president and president of the Black & Decker Consumer Group.
In earnings news, Macrovision (MVSN: Research, Estimates) said quarterly profit rose more than ten-fold on strong holiday sales of its DVD copy protection software and an increase in enterprise software electronic licensing sales.
Net profit for the fourth quarter rose to $10.7 million, or 21 cents a share, from $900,000, or 2 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose to a record $39.9 million from $30.2 million a year earlier, said the San Jose, Calif.-based maker of software to prevent piracy of computer software and other digital content.
Excluding special items, the company posted a profit of 24 cents a share compared with 19 cents a year earlier. On that basis analysts, on average, had been expecting Macrovision to post earnings per share of 23 cents on revenue of $34.8 million, according to Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc.
After the closing, Beverly Enterprises (BEV: Research, Estimates) posted a fourth-quarter profit from a gain after selling unprofitable facilities, compared with a loss in the 2002 quarter when weakened Medicare funding hurt results.
Net income at the Fort Smith, Ark.-based nursing home operator increased to $40.8 million, or 38 cents per share, from a loss of $91.0 million, or 87 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2002.
Reuters Research published a mean earnings estimate of 10 cents per share with the 10 analysts surveyed providing a range of 3 cents to 13 cents per share.
-- from staff and wire reports
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