Mid-Day Report
A sharp drop in consumer confidence along with oil prices that continue to climb sent the markets tumbling during the midday with the Dow falling 61 points to 12,788. Nasdaq plunged 28 points to 2401.
On the upside
LM Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC) reported lower first quarter earnings but the results surpassed expectations.
Morgan Keegan analyst Art Hatfield upgraded YRC Worldwide (Nasdaq: YRCW) over expectations that the light freight carrier industry will improve.
Southwestern Energy (NYSE: SWN) reported first quarter earnings that more than doubled prompting the company to lift its second quarter production outlook.
On the downside
The Food and Drug Administration requested that Isis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ISIS) include data from two preclinical studies in its final late stage trial of the company's cholesterol drug mipomersen.
Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) reported third quarter earnings that more than doubled to beat estimates due to strong sales but the stock price fell.
NetGear (Nasdaq: NTGR) disappointed with first quarter earnings that dropped to fall short of estimates prompting a downgrade.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 9 to 7 on the NYSE and by more than 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 5 points to 713.
