Wall Street was lower in midday trade on Monday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4 percent to 13,389.36, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.9 percent to 2,578.74 and the S&P 500 was 0.66 percent lower to 1,474.52.
Investor uncertainty ahead of tomorrow’s interest rate decision from the Federal Reserve and before several brokers release their quarterly results later in the week.
Brokerages declined ahead of results, with Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) 87 cents lower to $58.64.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) dropped $1.75 to $64.36, Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER; TYO: 8675) was down $2.10 to $72.55, and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) fell $3.32 to $187.27.
Most chipmakers were lower on the session.
The main exception was Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), which added 10 cents to $12.79 by midday after an upgrade to “neutral” from “underweight” from JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM; TYO: 8634).
Texas Instruments (NSYE: STM) dropped 1 cent to $34.67, while Intel (NAS: INTC; SEHK: 4335) was 9 cents lower to $24.84. Broadcom (NAS: BRCM) fell 70 cents to $34.80, while US-traded shares of STMicroelectronics (NSYE: STM; Euronext: STM) were down 58 cents to $16.11.
After a European Union court dismissed Microsoft’s (NAS: MSFT) appeal of a EU antitrust ruling and upheld the fine issued with the ruling, the software giant dropped 37 cents to $28.67.