Mideast Tensions Rattle Investors

Oil prices rose above the $40 a barrel mark as Israeli air strikes continued to pound the Gaza strip.  The Dow lost 31 points to close at 8483 while Nasdaq lost nearly 20 points to finish the session at 1510.

On the upside

AT&T (NYSE: T) is offering refurbished 8-gigabyte iPhones made by Apple (AAPL) for $99.

Higher oil prices lifted shares of Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM).

On the downside

Cogdell Spencer (NYSE: CSA) lowered its dividend in order to preserve capital.  The company owns specialty office properties for the medical profession in the southeastern United States.

Riverbed Technology (Nasdaq: RVBD) was downgraded by a Wedbush Morgan analyst.  The company provides distributed computing solutions.

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian had reportedly sold off all of his remaining shares of Ford Motor (NYSE: F).

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) reported strong holiday sales, but investors worried about the online retailer's performance through 2009 amid the ongoing recession.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 10 points to close at 466.