Disappointing Home Data Weighs Down Markets

Disappointing home sales data weighed down the markets during the midday with the Dow falling 57 points to 8463.  Nasdaq dropped 11 points to 1521.

 

On the upside

Shares of Focus Media (Nasdaq: FMCN) climbed after Sina offered over $1 billion to acquire the company's out-of-home advertising networks.

CIT Group's (NYSE: CIT) status change to become a bank holding company was approved and the company should receive $2.33 billion from the government's capital purchase plan.

Shareholders of National City (NYSE: NCC) and PNC Financial (NYSE: PNC) approved the proposed merger between the two banks.

On the downside

Shares of Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM) fell after announcing the release date of its fourth quarter as well as its full year results on January 29.

Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ford (NYSE: F).

JPMorgan analyst Shawn Webster warned that Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) will report disappointing first quarter earnings due to lower prices and weak demand.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by mroe than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks tumbled 7 points to 468.