Markets Fall As Fed Meets
July 31, 2012 at 06:26 AM EDT
Personal income and consumer confidence both rose but the markets traded lower during the midday with the Dow falling 41 points to 13,031 as the Federal Reserve convened its two-day policy meeting. Nasdaq eased a point to 2943.On the upsideU. S. Steel (NYSE: X) reported lower second quarter earnings but the results surpassed analyst expectations by a wide margin.The Wall Street Journal reported that Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will increase the amount of stock options available to key employees.Goodyear Tire & Rubber (NYSE: GT) impressed with sharply higher second quarter earnings that more than doubled to beat analyst estimates.On the downsideMasco (NYSE: MAS) fell to a loss for the second quarter as margins slipped.Amarin’s (Nasdaq: AMRN) chief executive Joe Zakrzewski, president John Thero and director Carl Gordon all sold shares of company stock.Humana (NYSE: HUM) disappointed with lower second quarter earnings that fell far short of analyst expectations and cut its full year outlook.In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 3 points to 788.
