The New York equities markets were lower at midday on Thursday as the recent rally seemed to have run out of steam. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.2 percent lower to 11,667.06 after reaching 11,724.86 earlier in the session. The Nasdaq Composite had also dropped 0.2 percent to 2,255.72, while the S&P 500 had fallen 0.1 percent to 1,334.80.
In the semiconductors sector, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia were both lower as ThinkEquity lowered its recommendation on both from “buy” to “sell”. AMD was 2.1 percent lower to $24.80, while Nvidia declined 2.9 percent to $29.27.
Automakers were higher. General Motors gained 1.4 percent to $32.73 when Kirk Kerkorian said he was interested in purchasing 12 million more shares in GM. His Tracinda investment group already owns 10 percent of GM. Ford Motor added 2.3 percent to $32.73 on the announcement that its European division will likely see profits this year.
Discount retailers Family Dollar dropped 3.2 percent to $28.03 even though its earnings in the fourth-quarter were higher than had been expected. The declines came when the company said September sales will probably be lower than estimated.
Time Warner declined 2.5 percent to $25.15 on a downgrade from “overweight” to “neutral” by JPMorgan.