A Day For Disappointing Earnings

Corporate earnings are the strongest they’ve been in years, but there remains quite a gap between the haves and the have nots.

AT&T plunged 10% Thursday after warning that revenues this year will come in well below estimates, battered by pricing pressures and the potential loss of discount local wholesale prices.

University of Phoenix Online and its parent, Apollo Group , fell 5% each on forward guidance that wasn’t as robust as investors had hoped. The education sector in general has been treated with skepticism by investors lately, as companies like Career Education and Corinthian Colleges have been hit by accounting and operations issues.

And Micron slipped after missing revenue estimates.

Coupled with weaker than expected durable goods orders and rising jobless claims, stocks spent the day on the defensive.

The Nasdaq lost 5 to 2015, the S&P 500 gave back 3 to 1140, and the Dow fell 35 to 10,443. Volume declined to 1.4 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.69 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 16-15 on the NYSE, and 16-14 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 56% on the NYSE, and 53% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 205-23 on the NYSE, and 127-30 on the Nasdaq.

After the close, palmSource beat estimates and raised guidance. Lawson beat estimates, Manugistics met estimates, and Paychex missed. Silicon Image raised guidance, and Verity warned.

During the day, Omnivision , ATI and Cognos gained on better than expected results.

Roxio soared 24% on a Napster deal with Best Buy .

The IPO of storage firm Xyratex received a lukewarm welcome.

Callidus Software plunged 26% after losing its CEO and warning.

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