Downgrades Of Greece And Portugal Send Markets Tumbling

Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of Greece and Portugal sending the markets tumbling during the midday with the Dow plummeting 127 points 11,077. Nasdaq plunged 35 points to 2487.

On the upside

Cirrus Logic (Nasdaq: CRUS) reversed year ago losses to post a better than expected profit for the fourth quarter.

First quarter earnings for Avery Dennison (NYSE: AVY) beat analyst estimates by a wide margin as revenue rose.

Hexcel (NYSE: HXL) reported greater than expected earnings for the first quarter.

On the downside

FormFactor (Nasdaq: FORM) widened first quarter losses.

While second quarter earnings rose for NBTY (NYSE: NTY), the results fell far short of analyst expectations.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded American International Group (NYSE: AIG) to an Underperform rating.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 11 points to 727.