- NEW YORK (Reuters)
- Blue-chip stocks dropped on Monday after disappointing results from financial
behemoth Citigroup Inc. C.N renewed jitters about sagging corporate earnings
at the start of the first-quarter earnings season.
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- Conglomerate General Electric Co. GE.N , whose businesses
include manufacturing, finance and the NBC television network, also pulled
down the market, dogged by lingering investor concerns about slowing earnings.
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- Investors picked up some battered technology stocks,
like chip equipment maker Applied Materials AMAT.O . But the Nasdaq market
recorded its lightest volume of the year.
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- "There's some sector rotation going on," said
Gary Wedbush, head of trading at Wedbush Morgan in Los Angeles, referring
to the market dichotomy. "One thing that is having a negative impact
on the Dow (blue chips) is GE, which is very weak,"
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- Investors are on tenterhooks and hoping for signals of
a profit recovery in the first-quarter results. A raft of firms will announce
profits on Tuesday, dubbed "Super Tuesday" on Wall Street. The
coming trading session is also a big day for economic data with up to eight
reports expected, including March retail inflation data.
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- "This is the biggest earnings week for the quarter
and it didn't start off with a bang," said Matthew Ruane, director
of listed trading at Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. GE "wasn't that
spectacular on the conference call ... to me it didn't enlighten anyone
for the certainty going forward."
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- The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average .DJI slid
97.15 points, or 0.95 percent, to 10,093.67, posting its lowest close in
about seven weeks, according to the latest data, The broader Standard &
Poor's 500 Index .SPX shed 8.46 points, or 0.76 percent, to 1,102.55.
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- The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC edged
down 2.41 points, or 0.14 percent, to 1,753.78, reversing a mild gain in
the last minutes of trading. Just 1.3 billion shares changed hands.
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- Airline stocks led decliners, with the S&P airlines
index .GSPAIR falling 3.85 percent after a bid by major carriers to raise
leisure fares and improve finances shaken by the Sept. 11 attacks appears
to have failed, after Northwest Airlines Corp. NWAC.O refused to go along,
air-fare experts said.
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- Continental Airlines CAL.N led the airlines in raising
leisure fares by $20 per round trip on Thursday. However, Continental and
US Airways U.N rolled back fares Monday following Northwest's decision
over the weekend to hold out, and others likely will follow, experts said.
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- Continental lost $1.19 to $28.82. The No. 5 U.S. airline
said it swung to a loss as lower revenues from passenger ticket sales amid
the economic slump eroded its steady recovery from Sept. 11. Among other
airline stocks, Delta Air Lines DAL.N lost $1.08 to $30.01 and U.S. Airways
shed 25 cents to $6.25.
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- Oil stocks climbed with oil prices on worries over Venezuela
after President Hugo Chavez returned to power in the world's fourth-largest
crude exporter following a failed military coup. ExxonMobil Corp. XOM.N
, the world's biggest publicly traded oil company, rose 30 cents to $41.60.
The Philadelphia oil services index .OSX soared 3.94 percent, as U.S. crude
futures rose more than $1 a barrel.
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- Citigroup slumped $1.18, or 2.5 percent, to $45.92, weighing
on the Dow. The company posted quarterly profits that missed analysts'
forecasts analysts as its corporate and investment banking income slipped.
Citigroup was the New York Stock Exchange's third-most active stock.
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- GE, the most active name on the Big Board, fell $1.70,
or 5 percent, to $31.85. GE slumped last week after posting a rare drop
in net income after charges for accounting changes. Its revenues were weaker
than many analysts had expected. GE late in the day said its financial
arm was slashing 7,000 jobs.
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- Helping keep a floor under Nasdaq were gains in computer
chip makers and related firms. The Philadelphia semiconductor index .SOXX
rose 1.95 percent, reflecting gains by Applied Materials AMAT.O , up 84
cents at $51.44, and others.
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- "The semis are pretty firm. It's across the board,
not due to any particular news," Wedbush said. "But there's also
some profit-taking in retail stocks ... There's some concern about the
economic recovery and the retail stocks have gone a long way in a short
amount of time."
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- Retail stocks were weak. The S&P retail index .RLX
fell1.37 percent. Among the Dow retail stocks, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT.N
lost $1.30 to $59.93 and Home Depot Inc. HD.N , the home improvements retailer,
shed $1.16 to $49.20.
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- Sun Microsystems SUNW.O , the most active issue on the
Nasdaq, dragged down the tech-laden market. Sun fell 18 cents to $7.79.
The network computing firm reports results this week.
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- High-end graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. NVDA.O rose
after it said it has signed a deal to have one of its chipsets integrated
into a line of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HWP.N desktop PCs. Shares of Nvidia
rose $1.48 to $38.16 on the Nasdaq.
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- There were other bright spots. Allergan Inc. AGN.N rose
$3.80 to $65.71 after saying its popular wrinkle-fighting toxin Botox received
the first U.S. approval for a cosmetic use.
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- Eli Lilly and Co. LLY.N jumped $1.78 to $75.20. The drug
giant said profits fell 22 percent as cheaper generics sliced into sales
of its antidepressant Prozac, but the firm expects profits to rebound next
year on launches of new medicines.
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- AOL Time Warner Inc. AOL.N rebounded, with a 5.96 percent
gain, leaping $1.20 to $21.34. The stock found support near the $20 price
after several sessions of steep declines, analysts said.
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- Resistance -- the point where sellers are likely to emerge
-- is at 10,300 for the Dow, 1,782 for Nasdaq and 1,120 for the S&P
500. Support -- where buyers are expected to swoop in -- is at 10,000 for
the Dow, 1,725 for the Nasdaq and 1,100 for S&P.
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