Disappointing Earnings Weigh Down Markets

Disappointing earnings weighed the markets down to a lower open with the Dow losing 16 points to 12,086. Nasdaq dropped 33 points to 2570.

On the upside

Tokio Marine Holdings will acquire Delphi Financial (NYSE: DFG) in a deal valued at approximately $2.7 billion.   

Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) was reportedly the target of a possible acquisition by Amazon and a joint bid by Microsoft and Nokia. 

Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) may be targeted for acquisition by AT&T (NYSE: T) after AT&T abandoned its bid for T-Mobile.

On the downside

Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) reported higher second quarter earnings but the results fell short of analyst expectations. 

Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) blamed a slow start to the cold and flu season and a contract dispute with Express Scripts for lower first quarter earnings that missed expectations.

Analysts lowered their price target on Emerson Electric (NYSE: EMR).

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks fell 4 points to 734.