Conservative Guidance, Renewed European Debt Concerns Sink Stocks

Conservative corporate guidance along with renewed concerns about European debt sent the markets down to a sharply lower close with the Dow falling 73 points to 11,283. Nasdaq dropped 23 points to 2555.

On the upside

Heelys (Nasdaq: HLYS) narrowed third quarter losses as margins improved.

iStar Financial (NYSE: SFI) entered discussions with creditors to exchange debt and procure an additional $2 billion in financing.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE: PDM) reported higher third quarter funds from operations.

On the downside

Shares of Complete Genomics (Nasdaq: GNOM) fell on its first trading day.

Omnicare (NYSE: OCR) will reorganize its Pharmacy Services into two separate groups, Long-Term Care and Specialty Care.

SurModics (Nasdaq: SRDX) blamed the sluggish economy for reporting an unexpected loss for the fourth quarter.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 both on the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks slipped 3 points to 731.