Investors Bid Adieu to June Swoon

The worst June for stocks since 1930 and the worst first half since 2002 ended mixed on Monday, with blue chips flat and tech stocks sharply lower.

By any measure, it’s been a rough year for stocks. The Dow had its worst June since 1930, down 10.2% for the month. The major indexes had their worst first half since the end of the 2000-2002 bear market, down 13-14%. And the Dow posted its third straight quarterly decline for the first time in 30 years.

Financial stocks once again weighed on the market on Monday, as downgrades and rumors of more losses sent the sector to its lowest levels since the 1997-1998 emerging markets crisis.

Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) led tech stocks lower, shedding 3% on an SEC filing detailing why it rejected Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) $47 billion takeover offer and why its director slate deserves a chance to turn the company around. The stock closed at $20.66, just $1.48 higher than where it stood before Microsoft’s offer.

In a sign of how bad investor sentiment is, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) went nowhere despite bullish comments from Citi analyst Mark Mahaney. Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) fell after Mahaney lowered his price target on the company.

Sprint (NYSE: S) gained 6.6% on an upbeat Wall Street Journal article.

Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) continued to fall in the wake of its disappointing quarterly results, and Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT) lost 5.5% on a Citi downgrade.

The Nasdaq fell 22 to 2292, the S&P tacked on 1 to 1280, and the Dow added 3 to 11,350. Volume declined to 5 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.1 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 20-14 margin on the NYSE, and 19-10 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 57% on the NYSE, and 77% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 80-477 on the NYSE, and 53-417 on the Nasdaq.

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