Opening Bell Report

The markets opened higher, but quickly gave up their gains as investors worried about ongoing losses in the financial services sector.  The Dow fell 18 points to 11,331 while Nasdaq gave up a point to 2384.

On the upside

Monsanto (NYSE: MON) sold its line of cow hormones to drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) for $300 million.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) rose after the computer and printer maker posted results that beat expectations.

China-based Suntech Power Holdings (NYSE: STP) raised its revenue forecast for the rest of the year due to increased shipments of solar cell modules.

On the downside

Shares of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) continued its freefall to multi-year lows as a government bailout of the mortgage finance company becomes increasingly likely.

Rising oil prices weighed down the airline sector with shares of UAL (Nasdaq: UAUA) and AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR) falling sharply.

Jack Henry & Associates (Nasdaq: JKHY) posted a lower 4th quarter profit to miss expectations.  The company provides computer systems to financial institutions.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 5 to 4 on the NYSE, but were edged out by a narrow margin on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks held steady at 730.