Disappointing earnings weighed the markets down during the midday with the Dow losing 36 points to 15,447. Nasdaq fell 10 points to 3597.
On the upside
Forest Oil (NYSE: FST) will sell its oil and gas assets in the Texas Panhandle.
Rising gold prices lifted shares of Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX), Kinross Gold (NYSE: KGC) and Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY).
Shares of Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) and LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) continued rising after China announced plans to expand its solar generating capacity yesterday.
On the downside
Goldman Sachs analyst Patrick Archambault set a price target of $84 per share for Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA).
Shares of ExOne (Nasdaq: XONE) continued falling after BB&T downgraded the company yesterday.
Liquidity Services (Nasdaq: LQDT) warned that third quarter earnings and revenue would fall short of its previous forecast and cut if full year outlook.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index lost 6 points to 1676.