The world watched this week as Hurricane Sandy bore down its torrential rains and waves cresting as high as 30-feet on New York City. The resulting 2-day shutdown of the stock market disrupted business the world over. But just as NYC is resilient, so are markets. In the wake of the storm, there doesn't appear to be any sustained impact on media and advertising stocks, though the beginning of the holiday shopping season is off to a tough start.

Facebook (FB) reported this week with a beat on both revenue and EPS. The company turned in 3Q revs of $1.262B (vs. estimates of $1.229B) and non-GAAP EPS of $0.12 (vs. the Street's $0.11), sending the stock up around 20% in its wake. The massive social network reported that advertising revenues increased 36% yoy while Payments were up 13%. Mobile represented 14% of total advertising revenue for the quarter.

The biggest media story this week came from the North, as Canada's broadcast regulator (CRTC) denied Bell Canada's bid to acquire Astral, a leading broadcast and cable programmer with heavy penetration in the Quebec province. Dval Ghose, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, called the decision a "major surprise," with both media and advertising executives across Canada stunned by the decision.

Nomura's Michael Nathanson updated investors on broadcast network live ratings. Admittedly, the analyst said that early 2012/2013 network results have been "disappointing". Season-to-date broadcast P18-49 ratings for the big 4 networks are down −11% (which includes a +12% bounce back from NBC). The analyst confirmed the short term impact on advertising and profits (as well as longer term syndication pipeline). Of the media firms Nathanson covers, CBS (CBS) is most exposed to broadcast network revenue with 27% of total company revs. Investors will have to wait and see how general poor ratings will play out for the stocks.

Zynga goes tilt, LinkedIn still growing like a weed, and an upgrade for DreamWorks

Clear Channel (CCMO) had a busy week, starting with a star-studded Music Festival last weekend at the MGM Theater in Las Vegas and Bloomberg reported that the firm could be eyeing-up an acquisition of Pandora (P) in the wake of news that Apple may be entering the Internet radio game. The stocks been up big -- it's risen almost 80% since the end of August. The Festival, with a line-up of superstars from Taylor Swift, Usher, Pink and Rihanna to Bon Jovi, Green Day and Aerosmith, Clear Channel execs Bob Pittman, John Hogan and John Sykes proved that a legacy media company known for radio and out-of-home can become a dominant digital force, demonstrating the unique power of legacy media that no digital-only company could hope to compete with.

Well, it's been a long time coming but Yahoo (YHOO) shareholders can begin to breathe a bit easier. On Tuesday, the digital media company announced it had closed the first stage of monetizing its stake in Chinese Internet property, Alibaba. Investors had gotten a bit nervous about the commitment to capital returns as the negotiations dragged on and as the company welcomed a new CEO, Google's Marissa Mayer.

As we pull into the final lap of 2012, investors (analysts, too) have lots of questions regarding where the media industry is headed next year. If the year were to end now, Nomura analyst Michael Nathanson believes the year will be remembered for its "unusual combination of significant media multiple expansion and minimal positive earnings revisions". To this end, he published a report that was mainly full of (unanswered) questions.

Amazon launches new Kindles, signs a big content deal; Less Facebook selling, and AOL and News Corp both see price targets rise. Plus LinkedIn, Netflix, and Amazon in this week's Wall St. Report.