Wall Street was down at midday on Thursday after crude oil prices jumped again, retail sales data for April was disappointing, and several sectors saw significant declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1 percent to 11,531.95, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.6 percent to 2,284.60 and the S&P 500 declined by 0.9 percent to 1,311,12. Also contributing to losses were concerns that interest rates are already too high or are close to being too high after the Federal Reserve raised rates again on Wednesday.
In computer-related stocks, Apple Computer lost 3.8 percent to $67.93, while Cisco Systems was down again, this time by 2.9 percent to $20.14.
Glassmaker Corning, which manufactures glass components for LCD computers and televisions, dropped 5.5 percent to $25.68 after an admission earlier in the week that internal accounting controls for asbestos litigation were weak.
Insurer American International Group, the world’s largest, was down 4.7 percent to $64.44 after issuing its quarterly report late Wednesday. AIG’s first-quarter earnings were 5 percent lower than had been predicted.
Among gainers, News Corporation was up 3.1 percent to $19.72 on a third-quarter earnings report that showed net profit more than doubled in the quarter and earnings per share 30 percent above what had been expected. Along with the report, the company said that it was doubling its share buyback.