On the upside
Southern Energy Homes Inc., a subsidiary of Clayton Homes, offered $2.75 a share to buy Cavalier Homes (Amex: CAV).
An analyst upgraded Spartech Corp. (NYSE: SEH), a maker of thermoplastic products.
On the downside
Shares of Alcoa (NYSE: AA) fell sharply as aluminum prices lost ground.
Casino stocks fell sharply. Joining the sell-off was Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) and Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN).
An analyst downgraded Columbia Banking System (Nasdaq: COLB) which operates commercial banks in the states of Washington and Oregon.
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) launched its Force.com cloud computing platform, but the stock was unable to resist the sell-off in the overall market.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 6 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks tumbled 18 points to 508.
