By the middle of the afternoon in New York on Monday, equities markets were lower again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by 0.2 percent to 10,867.66, while the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 1.1 percent to 2,110.7 and the S&P 500 was 0.5 percent lower, to 1,245.52. In addition, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies had lost 1.2 percent to below 700.
Broker recommendations had their effect on the day. Walt Disney was down 1.5 percent to $28.88 on a downgrade from “buy” to “hold” from Citigroup. A downgrade from Deutsche Bank, meanwhile, hurt telecommunications equipment manufacturer Tellabs, which lost 9.7 percent to $13.55. Software company Adobe added 4.2 percent to $29.17 on an upgrade from Cowen and Co.
In the banking sector, Lehman Brothers was down 4 percent to $63 even though its quarterly results were better than had been anticipated when analysts pointed out that earnings were down from its first quarter report.
Monster Worldwide, the recruitment company, lost 7.3 percent to $38.92 after it announced that is being investigated by an independent committee of directors in relation to its practices surrounding the granting of stock options.
Among gainers, General Motors added 3 percent to $26.12 on the news that Delphi, it’s largest parts supplier, had reached an agreement with the United Auto Workers concerning buy-outs for Delphi workers.