The markets opened lower after Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed by a suicide bomber. The Dow dropped 66 points to 13,486 while Nasdaq lost 9 points to 2715.
On the upside
Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) hit a record high as the company inked a deal with News Corp. to distribute Fox movies through iTunes, according to a Financial Times report.
China's commitment to renewable energy lifted shares of solar-cell maker China Sunergy (Nasdaq: CSUN).
Data storage provider EMC (NYSE: EMC) offered $85 million to buy Document Sciences (Nasdaq: DOCX).
On the downside
Analysts raised concerns that Citigroup (NYSE: C) may cut its dividend and write off as much as $18.7 billion in the 4th quarter.
Fiber-optics company Avanex (Nasdaq: AVNX) expected lower revenues due to the loss of a distribution partner.
United Community Banks (Nasdaq: UCBI) which operates community banks in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, lowered its guidance due to higher than expected loan losses.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by a margin of 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 5 points to 791.
