Sales of new homes tumbled in February to a record low to weigh the markets down to a lower open with the Dow losing 29 points to 11,988. Nasdaq dropped 17 points to 2666.
On the upside
Second quarter earnings surged for Jabil Circuit (NYSE: JBL) to surpass analyst expectations and the company forecast current quarter results ahead of estimates.
The Food and Drug Administration informed Star Scientific (Nasdaq: CIGX) that its modified tobacco products Ariva-BDL and Stonewall-BDL are not subject to regulation.
China Vesting upgraded China Direct Industries (Nasdaq: CDII) to its China Dragon Undervalued Index.
On the downside
Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) blamed soft demand and weak prices for lowering its third quarter revenue guidance.
Xoma (Nasdaq: XOMA) reported that its Type 2 diabetes treatment Xoma 052 failed a Phase 2b clinical trial.
The Federal Reserve rejected Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) plan to increase its dividend.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 6 points 802.
