Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks Features Delta Air Lines, St. Jude Medical, BellSouth,...

CINCINNATI -- Among the stocks featured in the December 2 edition of Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks are Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL), St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ), BellSouth (NYSE:BLS), Corning (NYSE:GLW), and United States Steel (NYSE:X). Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks is just

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Schaeffer's S&P 500 Index Hot Stocks for Thursday, December 2, 2004:

A daily feature available on SchaeffersResearch.com is the "SPX Hot Stocks" column. Each afternoon immediately prior to the close, we will provide a list of the day's top-20 performing stocks in the S&P 500 Index (SPX - 1190.87) as well as the bottom-20 names. Featured along with this table will be news that is moving some of the shares.

NOTE: Stocks trading under $5 per share have been eliminated from this listing of the top-20 and bottom-20 performing stocks.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) is enjoying the fruits of an announcement made yesterday, riding the momentum to the top of the hot stocks list. Yesterday, DAL announced that it had closed a financial deal with GE Commercial Finance (GE) and American Express (AXP) for $1.1 billion. Additionally, 229 of the company's pilots retired yesterday, locking in their retirement benefits ahead of a pay cut of 32.5 percent, effective yesterday. This action will allow the retired pilots to draw benefits on their prior salaries and gives them the option to receive half of their pension benefits in a lump sum, with the other half coming as an annuity later. DAL has seen an increase of nearly seven percent in trading today.

St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) finds itself near the top of our list today, thanks to an approval of its Identity ADx pacemaker by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. Upon receiving the approval, STJ announced that it will immediately launch the product in Japan. This news vaulted STJ ahead by slightly more than three percent in today's trading action.

Delving a little deeper into the hot stocks chart, we find telecommunications interest, BellSouth (NYSE:BLS). Yesterday, BLS announced that its integration of AT&T Wireless into Cingular Wireless is running ahead of schedule. Included in the report was the belief that this rapid pace will generate greater savings than the company initially anticipated. This announcement was made with SBC Communications (SBC), and translated into a jump of slightly more than two percent in trading today.

Corning (NYSE:GLW) has found its way to the bottom of the hot stocks chart today. GLW announced that it still feels comfortable with its earnings outlook for the fourth quarter. Previously, GLW stated that it expected earnings to fall between 10 and 12 cents per share. This announcement was coupled with news that the company has seen shipments of its liquid crystal display (LCD) products in Taiwan fall during November. GLW now expects LCD volume growth to fall in the range of flat to three percent, sending the stock tumbling nearly eight percent.

Rounding out our discussion today is United States Steel (NYSE:X). Citing the fact that market prices for hot-rolled sheet metal peaked "a couple of months ago," both Prudential Equity and Longbow downgraded X. Additionally, the firms recognized the possibility that Chinese consumption of steel may soften. Prudential downgraded X from "neutral" to "underweight," while Longbow cut the company to "underperform" from "market perform."

Click the following link to see a Chart of the SPX 500 Index's Top 20 Percentage Gainers:

http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=11902 .

Click the following link to see a Chart of the SPX 500 Index's Top 20 Percentage Losers:

http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=11902 .

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Schaeffer's Investment Research, founded by Bernie Schaeffer in 1981, is a financial information and trading resources company. It publishes Bernie Schaeffer's Option Advisor, the nation's leading options subscription newsletter. The firm's contrarian approach focuses on stocks with technical and fundamental trends that run counter to investor expectations. The firm's website, http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com , is recognized as one of the leading information sources for stock and options traders and was cited as the top options website by both Forbes and Barron's. Click here for more details about Schaeffer's trading methodology: http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com/method.