Wachovia's surprising first quarter loss weighed down the markets to a lower close with the Dow falling 23 points to 12,302. Nasdaq dropped 14 points to 2276.
On the upside
Clayton Holdings (Nasdaq: CLAY) will be taken private by an affiliate of Greenfield Partners for approximately $132.6 million.Part of what may be the largest oil find in thirty years could be in a region partially owned by Repsol YPF (NYSE: REP).
Shares of Hess (NYSE: HES) soared after a leak forced the closure of a major Royal Dutch Shell pipeline .
On the downside
Wachovia's (NYSE: WB) surprising first quarter loss sparked earnings concerns and sent shares of First Horizon (NYSE: FHN) and National City (NYSE: NCC) tumbling.
Rick's Cabaret International (Nasdaq: RICK) completed its acquisition of adult nightclub The Executive Club in Dallas for approximately $9.5 million.
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Agria (NYSE: GRO) alleging that the Chinese agricultural supplier provided misleading and omitted items in its initial public offering filing.
In the broad market, declining issues barely outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 2 points to 686.
