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Subscribe to RSSNEW YORK — Poor reports on corporate earnings and American consumer confidence dragged stocks lower Tuesday. Worries about Europe's debt problems also pulled the market down after three days of gains.
Manufacturing conglomerate 3M cut its 2011 earnings forecast, and U.S. Steel warned that demand for its products could slow. Netflix Inc. plunged 36 percent after reporting that 800,000 subscribers ditched the service after it raised prices in July.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 63 points, at 11,850, after the first hour of trading. That's a decline of 0.5 percent. The Dow had been down as many as 173 points ten minutes after the opening bell.
The latest headlines from Europe cast doubt over whether leaders there can agree on a comprehensive solution for the region's debt crisis in time for a summit Wednesday. The market was also pulled lower after the Conference Board reported that its index of consumer confidence plunged to the lowest level since March 2009.
The S&P 500 index was down 9, or 0.8 percent, at 1,241. The Nasdaq composite fell 20, or 0.7 percent, to 2,679.
3M, the maker of Post-Its and Scotch tape, said its third-quarter earnings fell 2 percent. It also expects growth to remain slow through the year and it cut its 2011 earnings forecast. 3M slumped 4 percent, the most among the 30 stocks in the Dow average.
U.S. Steel plunged 5.5 percent after the nation's largest steelmaker warned that demand for some of its products could decline in the final three months of the year if the economy slows down more.
Delta Air Lines Inc. slumped 3.6 percent after the airline reported results that missed Wall Street's expectations. Delta cut its flights 1 percent in the most recent quarter and said it would cut as much as another 5 percent during the last three months of this year.
Increasing hope for a solution to Europe's debt mess and strong profit reports from Caterpillar Inc., McDonald's Inc. and other major U.S. companies helped the S&P 500 surge 14.1 percent from Oct. 3, when it slumped to its lowest point of the year, through Monday's close.
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I've never understood why a single company can cause a drag on the market. Investors would appear to be a superstitious lot no better than a shaman predicting the fate of the market based on a single bird egg falling from a nest.
Just what I was thinking, toao. We are made up of more than one company (or are we).
it fell because with the recent upsides it was time to take some profits. Of course don't forget make some commissions, no trades, no commissions. i know, i worked on commissions most of my life and i'm retired now.
what is being missed or just not said is this...wall street was bailed out....Fed monies gave wall street a big boost this year and most of last year..are the real prices actually showing the reasons for increases in stocks..I don't see it. Will there be another bubble to burst..you bet..the big question will be when and just how bad. So far a lot of monies have been printed up by the treasury and the Fed..and the only ones helped by it are on wall street. Nothing has been done to help the middle class who are still loosing jobs and their homes.
Most of the traders are coming off a cocaine high and are paranoid about any move. As they re-dose they tend to just be jittery. Notice after lunch there is usually a rally untill the alcohol & re-snort starts to depress them for the afternoon. If they are lucky to get a hit -- the day could end on an up - otherwise it's martini's and losses after 5.
I'm kidding of course
Dragging the market is one thing,but how about the market taking the whole country down !!! Greed has no reasonable mind anyone could count on !
Well, it's apparent that computers are doing all the "thinking" here based on extremely short-term decision metrics programmed by 23 year old Wall Street idiots.....it's this behavior that keeps the small retail investor on the side lines convinced that the game is rigged. No one in their right mind would think that 3M's outlook equates to an instant ~7% drop in company/stock value....that's just nonsense...and will be proven true in 2 or 3 days (or by next week) when the stock is back up...the result of yet another computer-driven, untouched by human mind, set of decision metrics programmed by the same idiot 23 year old. This is a 'traders' market, not an 'investors' market. Unless you want to get burned, sit it out; or just go for the dollar-cost-averaging strategy and don't worry about what the Wall Street morons are doing. The bottom line for these guys today is "chun" buy and sell, buy and sell...collect the vigorish and laugh all the way to the bank. The real suckers in this market are the pension funds being churnned to death....
The whole internet bubble is going to collapse yet again. Why? Because we bought off on the Apple slave labor business model. Steve Jobs could not have been totally out of the loop with regards to what was happening at Foxconn - his manufacturing plant in China. Look up Foxconn and see the misery Steve Jobs created. Jobs rode the back of people who were being abused in China in order to have huge margins on his products here. They had to put up nets around the Foxconn building to keep these people from commiting suicide. One has to ask why? He was no hero nor did he possess any great amount of moral fortitude. He did what every other business person did during this time. Apple is so poised to collapse as it is now experiencing a huge margin compression due to competition. Andriod has come home to roost and is much cheaper than the Apple. It crushed the sales of the Iphone and will do the same thing to the Ipad. My wife has a Toshiba Thrive that people with Ipads wished they had. Afterall, it has all the ports and a replaceable $80.00 battery. Toshiba makes a great product and sells much lower than the great and mighty Apple.
Look at Netflix and 3M for further proof of the demise of the golden age of the internet.
Taking profits is what they do.
Ho hum, Monday cut paste, market soars on whatever. Tuesday, cut paste, market dragged down because of whatever, continue until Friday, restart program Monday. There now you're a reporter. And we thought UAW workers had it easy.
Yet oil continues to go up. This was one of the biggest reasons we went into a rescission the last time. The greedy speculators on Wall Street are at it again. WTF!!!!
Stocks fall on poor profit, confidence reports/stocks rise on good profit, confidence reports/stocks fall on poor profit, confidence reports/stocks rise on good profit, confidence reports..........ad infinitum........Thank you PMSnbc!
Wall Street keep raising their expectations for profits and they really think all they have to do is charge more for their products and services and consumers/customers will just follow suit?
That's the problem Wall Street! You set your own goals and raise prices based on a goal? Supply and Demand is no longer a platform - that basis for gaining profit is no more.
People enjoy having products and services; but they don't enjoy going broke to received them.
Stop promising more to shareholders if they only way you can get it is by raising prices. How about trying good old fashion customer service and good products instead - and providing shareholders honest expectations.
You guys pay CEO's way to much money...because it seems all they have to do is set high expectations and raise prices to customers to get them, any idoit can do that.
It take real intelligence and hard work to get someone to pay a fair price, and you earn their business.
The fact is - with the economy the way it is - consumers/customers are beginning to realize; they don't have to buy your products; they would rather raise their expectations and save their own money.
TRUTH - not CRAP
Thank you and GOD BLESS AMERICA
Pretty poor article...does not even give the October Consumer Confidence numbers...shame on you!
None of these corporations are going to be reporting anything encouraging until demand for their products tick upwards. Obviously, that's not going to happen as long as so many people are seeing their wages frozen or their jobs lost. Consumers will continue to be bearish about spending until they have some level of confidence that they aren't going to be the next one "down sized". Corporations have made their bottom lines look great by cutting staff but at the same time they have contributed to the rise of unemployment so no one is buying their products. They claim their taxes are too high but the fact is they took advantage of tax breaks to boost their bottom lines now that practice has hurt the nation's economy. Chicken or Egg? Corporations need to hire or Consumers need to spend? Who needs to go first? With 5 times as many small businesses surveyed saying they need demand for their products, not reductions in regulations, I think we are stuck in a loop. Companies won't hire until demand goes up and consumers won't spend until employment goes up... the stock market will be gyrating as a result of our issues and Europe's woes as corporations try to find their way out of the woods and investors try to figure out which way is up.
The market is being manipulated by the government and the federal reserve, it is being shored up to give the appearence that all is well, this has been the strategy of all the major markets across the globe, be it in the Euro zone of Asia, all of these numbers are false, the buying and selling is done by insiders who are paid to keeep things within a set of parameters so that there isnt mass hysteria and a total collapse, think about it,,, what is making the market float? it starts going down and then miraculously raises by huge numbers a day or so later,,,, there is no economic growth, millions around the world out of work,,, just think about it for a minute,,,
Dang I am so Proud of the American consumer we all are starting to say ahhhhhhhh hell no to these Big companies that seem to try and stick the American consumer when they get a stupid ideas. Bravo people. We have decided to stand together and wall street is relizing it's our money and we don't have to buy it. BRAVO PEOPLE