Here's where markets stand at mid-day:
-NYSE down 64.71 (-0.92%) to 6,990.33
-DJIA down 70.04 (-0.67%) to 10,377.89
-S&P 500 down 8.08 (-0.83%) to 1,096.43
-Nasdaq down 14.77 (-0.66%) to 2,218.92
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
Hang Seng up 0.22%
Nikkei down -0.81%
FTSE down 0.58%
MID-DAY NYSE INDEX WATCH
NYSE Energy down 1.41% at 10,176.06
NYSE Financial down 1.47% at 4,613.23
NYSE Health Care down 0.22% at 6,021.65
NYSE Arca Tech 100 down 0.68% at 904.50
UPSIDE MOVERS
(+) NOK (+4.1%) hiked two notches by analysts at Morgan
Stanley.
(+) RSCR (+6.1%) sold for $13.25 a share.
(+) ORCL (+5.3%) hires ex-HP CEO Mark Hurd as co-president.
(+) EPE (+11.9%) sold to Enterprise Products.
(+) CASY (+6.8%) meets with Q1 EPS, recommends against
Couche-Tard offer.
(+) AUTH (+2.3%) to merge with UPEK.
(+) CCE (+1.4%) updates guidance, sets buyback.
(+) YGE (+0.34%) inks energy sales agreement with France's
Cegelec.
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
(-) BCS (-5.6%) names American Robert Diamond CEO beginning
early next year.
(-) SI (-1.7%) trading lower despite analyst upgrade.
(-) DIS (-1.3%) says ABC news chief resigns after 13 years.
(-) ICGN (-7.6%) sets date for reverse stock split.
(-) CSKI (-28.7%) lowers 2010 outlook.
(-) TSYS (-0.9%) gets Army orders.
(-) CYTR (-3.9%) initiates Phase 2 clinical trial with Bafetinib
in advanced prostate cancer.
(-) ARG (-1.4%) gets raised offer from Air Products (
APD
), to $65.50 a share.
MARKET DIRECTION
With no economic reports due on Tuesday, bears returned from a
long holiday weekend to dominate in the first part of the trading
day. All major indexes are trending lower at mid-day after their
counterparts in Asia and Europe also showed modest losses.
Today's move follows a week that saw the Dow Jones Industrials
climbing 3% fueled by a monthly report from the U.S. Labor
Department that showed fewer-than-expected job losses last
month.
Topping company news, Oracle (
ORCL
) is firmer after announcing that Mark Hurd has joined the firm as
president and has been named to the board. Hurd is the former
scandal-hit head of Hewlett-Packard Co. (
HPQ
). Additionally, Goldman Sachs reportedly added the stock to its
"Conviction Buy" list this morning.
Meanwhile, Google (
GOOG
) said it will launch a service to bring the Web to televisions in
the U.S. this fall, reports Reuters. The service will be released
on a global basis next year. Sony (
SNE
) said last week that it had agreed to have Google TV on its
television sets and that Samsung was looking at using the service,
the report said. The move is an effort to compete against Apple (
AAPL
) in the online television market.
In other news, Proctor & Gamble (
PG
) is on the lookout for brands with international appeal, reports
Bloomberg, citing comments from Chief Executive Officer Bob
McDonald. "I'd love to buy more global brands," Bloomberg reported
McDonald as saying in a recent interview with the news
organization.
GlaxoSmithKline (
GSK
) received additional fire over its Avandia diabetes treatment
after the British Medical Journal's editor said the medicine should
be removed from the market and never should have been approved,
reports Bloomberg. Avandia's sales have faltered since a study
published in the New england Journal of Medicine in 2007 showed a
43% increased risk of heart attach from the drug.
A move by U.S. bank Comerica Inc. (
CMA
) to retire trust-preferred securities could end up saving it
millions of dollars in interest payments, reports Bloomberg. The
move could also trigger an onslaught of similar redemptions by U.S.
banks. Saying the recently enacted Dodd-Frank Act no longer allows
lender to count TruPS at face value, Comercia said it plans to
redeem $500 million of trust-preferred securities, according to a
company statement.
DryShips (
DRYS
) is down after the company said it filed for a mixed shelf
offering, and said it was in full compliance with its loan
agreements. It did not specify the amount of the mixed shelf
offering. It said it got an additional waiver letter under its $230
million loan facilities up to Dec. 1. The previous waiver letter
expired in August. DryShips also said it signed supplemental
agreements to extend waivers with Piraeus Bank under its $130
million and $90 million loan facilities up to March 31, 2012.
Also, Harley Davidson Inc (
HOG
) is lower after the motorcycle manufacturer reached a tentative
agreement with its union workers that could prevent the company
from shifting operations out of the state of Wisconsin, where the
company is based. Harley concluded talks with representatives of
United Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinists
and Aerospace Workers which covers 1,340 union workers. The new
contract will take effect April 2012 if approved.
In energy news, Chevron Corp. (
CVX
) is down as the broader market trends lower. The oil company said
this morning its Chinese subsidiary has acquired rights to explore
for oil on 8,100 square miles in the South China Sea's Pearl River
mouth basin. The exploration rights were purchased from Devon
Energy China Ltd. Terms were not disclosed.
Also, Valero Energy Corp. (
VLO
) said its operations at refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas were
unaffected by Tropical Storm Hermine as the storm passed through
Texas on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Valero owns six refineries in
Texas, including a 315,000 barrel a day refinery in Corpus
Christi.
Commodities are mixed as December gold contracts are up 0.64%,
or $8, to $1,259 an ounce while October crude contacts are down
1.55%, or $1.16, at $73.48 a barrel.
In energy ETFs, the United States Oil Fund (
USO
) is down 1.03% to $32.75 and the United States Natural Gas fund (
UNG
) is down 0.73% to $6.50.
In precious metal ETFs, the SPDR Gold Trust (
GLD
) is up 0.88% to $122.93. Market Vectors Gold Miners (
GDX
) was up 0.59% to $54.28. iShares Silver Trust (
SLV
) was down 0.15% to $19.39.