month low. Oil briefly extended its fall Wednesday but reversed course, rising 54 cents to $42 a barrel after government and industry reports showed different views on distillate inventories. Mining and metal stocks weakened Wednesday as a rebound in the dollar triggered profit-taking across the metals sector, with gold and base metals prices also dropping sharply. Newmont Mining Corp. fell 3.1 percent to $43.88 and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. fell 2.3 percent to $35.34. Texas Instruments Inc. fell 2.8 percent to $24.30 after the world's largest maker of chips for cell phones said it expects fourth-quarter revenue and earnings per share to be in the middle range of its previous estimates. Pixar Animation Studios Inc. fell 6 percent to $85.69 after it said it would postpone the theatrical release of its animated feature "Cars" to June 2006 from November 2005. Shares of Altera Corp., Actel Corp. and Xilinx Inc. fell after Banc of America Securities lowered its investment rating on seven semiconductor stocks to "sell". Altera fell 1.8 percent to $22.23, Actel was down 6.6 percent at $16.10 and Xilinx was nearly 2 percent lower at $30.68. Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. fell 16 percent to $7.56 after Smith Barney lowered its investment rating on the subscription radio company.
