Retail Sales Drop, Markets Open Lower

The economic malaise continued to pressure retail sales in July. The markets opened lower with the Dow losing 9 points to 9271. Nasdaq dropped 7 points to 1985.

On the upside

Global Industries (Nasdaq: GLBL) reported second quarter earnings that more than tripled.

Second quarter earnings for FUQI International (Nasdaq: FUQI) surged to surpass expectations by a wide margin as revenue soared more than 50%.

Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) reported an unexpected profit for the second quarter due to strong sales.

On the downside

Orthovita (Nasdaq: VITA) reported a loss for the second quarter.

Cantor Fitzgerald (Nasdaq: OCNF) downgraded OceanFreight after the marine transportation services company swung to a second quarter loss.

Second quarter earnings for MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS) tumbled to fall short of expectations as customer dropouts increased and customer additions slowed.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks slipped 3 points to 562.