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U.S. stocks slipped at the start of trading Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average was lately down over 60 points.
Retailers are reporting quarterly earnings. Lowe's Cos. posted profits that were below Wall Street's estimates, pulled down by charges tied to store closings and unfinished projects. The home-improvement retailer's stock dropped on the news.
J.C. Penney Co.'s stock also fell after it reported a quarterly loss early Monday. The department store operator said its results were weighed down by restructuring costs and it lowered its earnings outlook for the rest of the year.
IBM was up nearly 1 percent after the investor Warren Buffett said his firm has been buying the company's stock this year. The purchases have given Berkshire Hathaway Inc. a stake of more than 5 percent in IBM. Berkshire will file a full quarterly update on its holdings Monday afternoon.
Major European markets were lower Monday. New governments are taking over in Greece and Italy, two countries under pressure in the European debt crisis. But plenty of challenges remain. Italy managed to sell five-year bonds to investors and raise $4.1 billion on Monday. But the 6.29 percent interest rate was the highest since 1997.
Stock indexes closed the week higher last Friday, as it appeared Greece and Italy were making steps toward getting their debt troubles under control. The Dow and the S&P 500 are now positive for the month. The Nasdaq is slightly lower.
No major economic reports are due out Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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One reason these big stories are not making any money there is 14 million or maybe more like 20 million out work now kinda digs into your profits.
Are you all nuts? One day the market is up because of Europe, the next day it is down because of Europe, the next day earnings are good, the next day earnings are poor, the next day housing sales are down, the next day housing sales are up, and on the seventh day He rested.... Take a sedative, guys, settle down, and look past your own nose! This roller coaster is all imaginary excitement from the idiots who brought you our financial crisis due to their own stupidity and greed. If you are in the market it needs to be for the long haul, base your purchases and sales on what a corporation will be doing 5 or 10 years from now, not next week!
Great Post Marshall.It says it all.
that is the first intelligent thing i have read on this site all day
The truth of the matter is that the collective "markets" are still riding a secondary bubble that is fragile at best. If this seasons retail sales numbers are not what they "think" it will be then the bubble will get even more fragile.
Realistically I feel that the Dow should be in the 8-9000 range today and not hovering in the 11-12,000 range that it has been lately.
Euro up, euro down, round and round the merry go round. Must be glad most trading is software driven. Up and down must be driving people crazy. Sad. Invest in companies, nope. Invest in the graphs, that's the ticket! Sad.
For the life of me, I can not figure out why the European Union has not sued Goldman Sachs to assist, if not pay for funding the Greece bail-out. After all, Goldman and company gladly excepted payment and participated in teaching Greece how to hide their debt. I am sure that the eurozone has laws about securities disclosure as does the United States.