Wednesday’s biggest gaining and declining stocks

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) � Office-supply retailers dominated the conversation on Wednesday as Office Depot Inc. said it agreed to buy competitor OfficeMax Inc. Staples Inc., which had initially soared on chatter of a merger between its rivals, sank when the news was confirmed.

Gainers Click to Play Microsoft sees China as R&D center

Microsoft's Ya-Qin Zhang says the software giant sees China as a place to recruit talent, conduct research, develop products and grow its business, and discusses the company's focus on cloud computing and mobile platforms.

J.C. Penney Co. JCP � shares rose 3%, the best on the S&P 500 SPX . The stock recovered from two days of losses and is up 2.4% year to date. J.C. Penney is headed for a court fight with Macy�s Inc. M �over its deal with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. MSO � to create Martha Stewart stores within the department store. See: J.C. Penney and Macy�s heading to court

Chelsea Therapeutics International Ltd. CHTP �shares more than doubled after the company said Wednesday it expects to resubmit a blood-pressure drug application. Chelsea�s last effort to bring this treatment, its first, to market was postponed last March by the FDA.

Decliners

Garmin Ltd. GRMN �shares slid 9.4%, at one point triggering Nasdaq�s circuit breaker. The company reported on Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings slumped 22% with revenue also declining across all geographic regions. See: Garmin profit drops on slumping auto sales

garmin.com Enlarge Image Garmin�s 10% slide at one point triggered Nasdaq�s circuit breaker.

Shares of Life Technologies Corp. LIFE �shed 8.3%. The company was mentioned in a report that highlighted the opportunities in the in-vitro diagnostics market on Wednesday.

Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR �shares fell 7.4%. The oil-and-gas drilling contractor on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings recovered from a year ago but forecast lower earnings in the first quarter. See: Nabors quarterly earnings recover but outlook weak �

Newfield Exploration Co. NFX �shares declined 9.3% after the independent energy company said it swung to a fourth-quarter loss of $10.39 a share from a profit of 51 cents a share in the year-earlier period.

Shares of Office Depot ODP �slumped 17% while OfficeMax OMX shares fell 7%. Office Depot said Wednesday it would buy OfficeMax in an all-stock transaction worth about $1.2 billion. The confirmation of the deal was botched as the information was prematurely included in an earnings release on Office Depot�s website that was quickly pulled. The �official� announcement subsequently followed a few minutes later. See: Office Depot to buy OfficeMax in share swap.

Shares of Staples SPLS , which had surged 13% on the news on Tuesday, skidded 7.2%.

Other decliners that fell more than 5% included: Lennar Corp. LEN , PulteGroup Inc. PHM , Devon Energy Corp. DVN , Total System Services Inc.TSS , Masco Corp.MAS , Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.FCX , Valero Energy Corp.VLO , D.R. Horton Inc.DHI , Tesoro Corp.TSO , Newmont Mining Corp.NEM and CF Industries Holdings Inc. CF �

Top tickers trending

$HLF: Herbalife HLF �shares tumbled after the nutritional supplement company hosted its earnings conference call.

Chief Executive Michael Johnson said during the call that the business is experiencing strong momentum despite attacks against the company. Herbalife will also simplify financial information to help investors better understand its operations. See: Herbalife says it plans to simplify financial disclosures.

Herbalife late Tuesday said it earned $1.05 a share in the fourth quarter, up from 86 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. The robust earnings come as the company fends off hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who not only described Herbalife as a pyramid scheme but also took a $1 billion short position on the stock.

@ragnarisapirate: I�m almost willing to short $HLF based on the terrible music playing before their conference call...

$ODP/ $OMX: OfficeMax and Office Depot were trending after Office Depot bungled the official announcement of their merger. See: �Other Matters� becomes the new �Pending Larry Quote�

@chrisidore: $ODP & $OMX haven�t decided what to call the merged company. Here�s a suggestion for new symbol: OOPS

@bespokeinvest: Ironic that two retailers who cater to small businesses can�t even get their merger announcement straight. $ODP $OMX $$