Stocks meandered up and down in Wall St early today with news that the Bush administration may intervene in the West Coast port dispute offsetting a string of weak corporate news.
The Dow Jones industrial average, which moved higher at the start, fell 54.45 points (0.72 per cent) to 7,473.95 at 1510 GMT.
The Nasdaq composite shed 12.06 points (1.06 per cent) to 1,127.84 and the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 dipped 7.59 points (0.95 per cent) to 792.99.
The retail sector led shares lower, as Sears slumped 2.54 to 35.10, Wal-Mart was down 80 cents at 50.95, JC Penney was off 84 cents at 14.50 and Home Depot slid 1.04 to 24.76.
In the tech sector, Intel was up 12 cents at 13.83 while AMD was down one cent at 3.50. Applied Materials slipped 33 cents at 11.00, Texas Instruments fell 16 cents at 14.52 while Motorola dipped 28 cents to 9.73.
JP Morgan contained losses in early trade, down just 10 cents at 16.44 as investors welcomed its attempt to tackle slumping profits and falling revenues on reports it is planning to cut 4,000 jobs worldwide in an attempt to shore up profits in the face of slumping revenues.
Separate reports saying that Merrill Lynch was planning to shed 1,000 jobs did little to help the stock which was down 62 cents at 29.55.
On the bond market, the 10-year bond was yielding 3.615 per cent compared with 3.665 per cent Friday and the 30-year bond 4.695 per cent from 4.717 per cent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
AFP