Lower Open As New Home Sales Drop

A drop in new home sales weighed the markets down to a lower open with the Dow falling 82 points to 12,510. Nasdaq lost 6 points to 2835.

On the upside

Electronic payments solutions company ACI Worldwide (Nasdaq: ACIW) offered a premium of $540 million in cash and stock to acquire financial services software solutions provider S1 (Nasdaq: SONE).

Weatherford International (NYSE: WFT) swung to a better than expected profit for the second quarter.

Second quarter earnings for RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) fell but the electronics retailer announced an agreement to sell Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) products beginning September 15.

On the downside

Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) reported higher second quarter earnings but revenue missed expectations and the movie rental company forecast third quarter results below analyst estimates.

AK Steel Holding (NYSE: AKS) reported higher second quarter earnings but the results fell far short of analyst expectations.

U. S. Steel (NYSE: X) swung to a second quarter profit but revenue fell short of expectations and the company warned of lower operating profit for the current quarter.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks slipped 2 points to 829.