Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: McDermott International, (NYSE: MDR) popped 11% in intraday trading today after news of a higher backlog and new contracts overshadowed a big earnings miss.

So what: Fourth-quarter EPS of $0.19 badly missed the consensus estimate of $0.29 and fell 41% year-over-year. On a more positive note, fourth-quarter bookings of nearly $2 billion increased the backlog to $5 billion, up about 52% year-over-year.

Now what: Change orders on existing projects during the fourth quarter caused delays in revenue and income recognition. However, these changes increased the total revenue and profit expected from the projects and pushed the delayed revenue into 2011. The big increase in the backlog also bodes well for the earnings outlook this year.  

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