Profit Taking Weighs Down Stocks
The markets closed lower with the Dow falling 48 points to 10,812 despite merger and acquisition activity as investors locked in profits from four weeks of market gains. Nasdaq dropped 11 points to 2369.
On the upside
NetSol Technologies (Nasdaq: NTWK) regained compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements.
Shares of Dynegy (NYSE: DYN) climbed in hopes that Blackstone Group will increase its $4.50 per share offer for the company.
MGM (NYSE: MGM) filed for an initial public offering of its Macau operations on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
On the downside
Kaufman Bros. analyst Karl Keirstead downgraded CSG Systems International (NYSE: CSGS) saying that the company's business has not expanded as much as he had expected after the company acquired Intec for $372 million.
Bridgepoint Education (NYSE: BPI) announced two new Master of Arts in Education specializations but the stock price fell over concerns that more stringent lending rules for federal student aid may negatively impact enrollment.
Stifel Nicolaus said that IBM (NYSE: IBM) is not likely to acquire Brocade Communications Systems (Nasdaq: BRCD) since IBM announced that it is purchasing Blade Network Technologies.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks slipped 2 points to 668.
