Disappointingly sluggish expansion of the German economy weighed the markets down to a lower open with the Dow dropping 68 points to 11,414. Nasdaq tumbled 24 points to 2531.

On the upside

The Food and Drug Administration approved Marshall Edwards' (Nasdaq: MSHL) new drug application for its NADH oxidase inhibitor cancer treatment ME-143.

Home Depot (NYSE: HD) reported higher second quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations as revenue rose prompting the home improvement chain to lift its full year guidance.

Brazilian managed data services provider Supportcomm selected Motricity (Nasdaq: MOTR) technology to support expansion of its mobile services platform in Latin America.

On the downside

ValueVision Media (Nasdaq: VVTV) narrowed second quarter losses but the results fell short of analyst expectations.

VanceInfo Technologies (NYSE: VIT) blamed higher expenses for lower second quarter earnings that missed estimates. The software developer forecast current quarter as well as full year results below expectations.

E-Commerce China Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) widened second quarter losses as expenses climbed.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 9 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 9 points to 708.