Trading was volatile on Wall Street during the session on Wednesday.
At just past midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 were all slightly higher, but by just before 2 p.m. New York time the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.32 percent to 2,538.06 and the S&P 500 had dropped 0.18 percent to 1,452.71.
The Dow remained slightly higher, up 0.14 percent to 13,229.95.
At one point, home builder Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH) had dropped over 40 percent to $8.24 on reports that it had or would shortly file for bankruptcy.
Even though Beazer denied the rumors, it remained 16.37 percent lower to $11.65 in early afternoon trade.
The reports hurt other homebuilders as well and at one point WCI Communities (NYSE: WCI) had dropped 14 percent to $7.59 and Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE: HOV) was 16 percent lower to $11.12.
In the automobile manufacturing sector, Ford Motor (NYSE: F) was 1.3 percent lower to $8.39 after it said that sales in the US dropped in July.
Even though it reported higher profits in the most recent quarter, Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) fell 0.9 percent to $32.45.
On the other hand, quarterly results that were better than expected when they were announced after trade closed on Tuesday sent Whole Foods (NAS: WFMI) 7.4 percent higher to $39.77.