Wall Street was lower in early afternoon trade, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average 1.17 percent lower to 13,497.47.

The Nasdaq Composite had dropped 0.99 percent to 2,587.07 and the S&P 500 was 1.47 percent lower to 1,475.54.

The financial services sector was lower as troubles in the subprime sector caused upset in Europe as well as in the United States.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) had dropped $1.84 to $47.65, while JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM; TYO: 8634) fell $1.75 to $44.76.

Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) was down $6.32 to $114.80, while Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) had dropped $9.30 to $184.00.

Meanwhile, some retailers reported that sales were slow in July as back-to-school shoppers put off their purchases.

While Wal-Mart (NSYE: WMT) said that same-store sales were up by 1.9 percent, better than the 1.5 percent that had been expected, it warned that apparel and home furnishings sales were weak and that heavy discounting had hurt profits.

Wal-Mart was down $1.25 to $47.17 in early afternoon trade.

The Gap (NYSE: GPS) added 1 cent to $15.74, but it said that same-store sales were down 7 percent, worse than that 4.9 percent decline that had been anticipated.

Elsewhere in the retail sector, home improvement retailer Home Depot (NYSE: HD) was $1.92 lower to $35.88, while discount retailer Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO) had dropped $3.38 to $27.

The New York equities markets were up slightly at midday on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average approaching its record closing high. The Dow added 0.3 percent to 11,717.01, just five points lower than its highest closing level. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 were each 0.1 percent higher to 2,260.45 and 1,337.36 respectively.

In the retail sector, Wal-Mart was 1.3 percent lower to $48.67 even though same store sales were up 1.8 percent in September, at the lower end of its expectations. Wal-Mart also announced that it will convert more positions to part-time and put a cap on salaries. Family Dollar was lower as well, dropping 1.6 percent to $28.77.

The telecommunications sector was mixed as Qualcomm and Broadcom were scheduled to enter negotiations with a San Diego judge on Wednesday over their patent dispute. Qualcom fell 3.5 percent to $35.09, while Broadcom was 3.9 percent higher to $31.53.

Harrah’s Entertainment gained 14.9 percent to $76.35 after the casino operator said that private equity groups Apollo Management and Texas Pacific had offered $15.1 billion to buy it out. The offer and the gain translated into gains elsewhere in the sector, with Wynn 3.7 percent higher to $70.94 and MGM Mirage up 4.5 percent to $41.09.

Apple Computer declined 2.6 percent to $75.02 on a downgrade from “buy” to “hold” from Citigroup, which said that Apple’s new larger-screen video iPods would probably not be available for the Christmas buying season.

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.

Wall Street was up at midday on Friday and looked to be ready to end the week at its highest levels in three months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.7 percent higher on the day so far and 1.6 percent higher for the week to 11,465.51. The Nasdaq Composite had added 0.5 percent on the day and 2 percent on the week to 2,194.21, while the S&P 500 was 0.6 percent higher to mid-session and up 1.2 percent on the week to 1,310.94.

The semiconductors sector saw significant gains during the week. Intel added 5.3 percent to $19.90 on an upgrade from “market perform” to “outperform” from Friedman Billings Ramsey. Meanwhile, LSI Logic gained 8 percent to $0.86 and PMC Sierra was 9.8 percent higher to $6.73.

Retailers were also up. Discount retailer Family Dollar was up by 10.8 percent to $26.12 on higher than anticipated sales in August and an improved fourth-quarter guidance. Nordstrom had its best week in more than a year, adding 11.7 percent to $38.02.

Internet stocks did well. Ebay was 11.1 percent higher to $28.11 on an announcement of an advertising agreement with Google. Amazon gained 12.8 percent to $31.63.

Losers on the week included the oil and telecommunications equipment sectors. Ciena, which manufactures networking equipment, dropped 4.6 percent to $3.95, while JDS Uniphase was 11.2 percent lower to $2.29.

In the oil sector, Marathon Oil fell 8.5 percent to $84.26, while Sunoco dropped 6.4 percent to $72.39.

At midday on Thursday, Wall Street was slightly lower amid a week of numerous releases of economic data. The declines, of just 0.1 percent for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq Composite, and the S&P 500, were attributed to investor hesitation ahead of employment figures to be released on Friday as well as to many early departures for the summer-ending Labor Day holiday this weekend. The Dow was 2.87 points lower to 11,374.10, while the Nasdaq had fallen by 2.87 points to 2,182.86 and the S&P was down 1.21 points to 1,303.06.

Miners were up on the news that Glamis Gold will be purchased by Goldcorp of Canada for $8.6 billion in stock. Glamis added 19 percent to $46.25. Elsewhere in the sector, Freeport McMoran was 2.1 percent higher to $58.29, while Barrick Gold gained 2.6 percent to $33.65. Related to the sector, mining equipment maker Joy Global was up 15.7 percent to $41.47 on a five-fold increase in earnings in its fiscal third quarter.

In the retail sector, Nordstrom added 4.5 percent to $36.88 on a 7 percent increase in August same-store sales. Meanwhile, discount retailer Family Dollar advanced by 5 percent to $25.44 on an increased earnings prediction for the fourth quarter.

Ebay fell 3.3 percent to $27.03 on the news that a privacy watchdog in the UK is looking at allegations that the online auctioneer has given user details to third parties and prevented users from deleting their accounts.

In the telecommunications sector, equipment maker JDS Uniphase dropped 13.7 percent to $2.27 on the announcement that its fiscal first-quarter revenues will not reach analyst predictions.