The pace of home construction in September fell to its lowest level in more than 25 years as investors mulled over the severity of a likely recession. The Dow lost 130 points to 8845 while Nasdaq fell 17 points to 1700.
On the upside
Shares of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) leaped after the search engine giant posted healthy gains in revenues and earnings despite worries of cutbacks among advertisers.Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) narrowed its losses in the 3rd quarter as the chip maker collected more licensing fees.
Cubist Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CBST) posted higher profits on strong sales of its antibiotics.
On the downside
Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) posted strong 3rd quarter results, but the outlook for the largest oilfield services company was dampened by a recent drop in oil prices.IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) posted healthy quarterly results, but worries remained about the company's ability to buck weakness in the global economy.
Two analysts cut their ratings on regional bank Zions Bancorp (Nasdaq: ZION) which reported lower earnings on Thursday.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin
of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell
2000 which tracks small cap stocks fell 17 points to 518.
