Dow starts out today at 12,453, minus 52 points.
NEW YORK (AP) — Mixed corporate earnings reports sent stock
indexes wobbling Monday.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 37 points, or 0.3 percent, to
12,468 in midday trading. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 3,
or 0.2 percent, to 1,334. The Nasdaq composite edged up less than
0.1 percent to 2,821.
Stocks fell broadly. Technology companies were the only one of the
10 company groups that make up the S&P index to edge higher.
Traders said rising commodity costs were making investors
cautious.
“It’s becoming harder to become overly exuberant over
backwards-looking earnings when it’s clear that consumers’
pocketbooks are getting squeezed over higher gasoline costs,” said
Paul Zemsky, a market strategist at ING Investment Management.
“Given that we’re near the … highs for the year, we’re certainly
not adding to our (stock) positions until we get a sense of what
these oil prices mean to the consumer.”
Johnson Controls Inc. fell more than 3 percent after the auto parts
supplier said it expects revenue to drop by $500 million in the
third quarter due to the earthquake in Japan.
