Stocks Retreat on Corporate Earnings News
On the upside
Costco Wholesale (Nasdaq: COST) reported lower 4th quarter revenues and earnings, but the results beat analysts' estimates.
Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO) posted higher revenues and profits that beat expectations as consumers sought out discounted merchandise.
Ciena Corp. (Nasdaq: CIEN) offered $521 million in cash and stock to buy the optical networking business from Nortel Networks which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
On the downside
Investors worried about dilution after Avis Budget Group (NYSE: CAR) announced a $250 million convertible note offering.
AirTran Holdings (NYSE: AAI) offered $75 million in convertible senior notes and 9 million shares of stock.
Shares of Sangamo BioSciences (Nasdaq: SGMO) fell after the genetic drug research company priced 3 million new shares.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 2 points to 599.
