Rising Commodities Prices Weigh Down Markets
Rising commodities prices weighed down the markets during the midday with the Dow dropping 64 points to 12,204. Nasdaq fell 13 points to 2803.
On the upside
Vonage Holdings (NYSE: VG) swung to a fourth quarter loss but revenue topped estimates and the company reported positive net line additions for the first time in more than two years.
China Direct Industries (Nasdaq: CDII) reversed year ago losses to post a profit for the first quarter as revenue more than doubled.
Shares of K-V Pharmaceutical (NYSE: KVA) continued rising after announcing yesterday a private placement to raise approximately $32 million and the establishment of a $130 million financing facility.
On the downside
MicroVision (Nasdaq: MVIS) warned of wider than expected losses for the fourth quarter.
Although Masco (NYSE: MAS) narrowed fourth quarter losses, the results fell short of expectations.Bernstein Research analyst Jeff Evenson downgraded JDS Uniphase (Nasdaq: JDSU) saying that the stock price has nearly doubled since the beginning of the year.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by nearly 8 to 5 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 3 points to 822.
