Looming Fiscal Cliff Weighs Down Markets

December 26, 2012 at 13:09 PM EST

The looming fiscal cliff sent the markets lower during the midday with the Dow falling 40 points to 13,098. Nasdaq dropped 22 points to 2989.
On the upside
Seeking Alpha wrote that Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) would be profitable soon.
Bargain hunters lifted shares of Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR).
MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD) chairman and chief executive Alfred Mann purchased over $100 million worth of company stock.
On the downside
Disappointing holiday sales weighed down shares of luxury handbag designer Coach (Nasdaq: COH). Seeking Alpha wrote that ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) used outdated technology and has few growth prospects.
Barron's noted that Standard & Poor's downgraded Radio Shack's (NYSE: KORS) corporate debt rating four levels in 2012.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index lost 7 points to 1419.