Rising oil prices and comments from former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan that the U.S. economy could face a recession later this year sent stocks lower on Monday.
After bucking a blue chip downtrend last week, tech stocks led the way lower Monday, losing nearly half a percent, but the major indexes climbed back to finish off their worst levels of the day.
AMD was a standout, surging 7% on reports of a possible private equity investment, which sparked buyout rumors. AMD was the most heavily traded stock on the NYSE, with 66 million shares changing hands, more than twice daily volume.
Dell and Ciena
lost ground ahead of their earnings reports later this week, while Sonus
gained ahead of its results.
Arris fell 9% on a competing bid from Ericsson
for Norway’s Tandberg Television.
LSI and Research in Motion
climbed on upgrades.
After the close, Brocade , Marvell
and NetEase
rose on their earnings reports.
The Nasdaq lost 10 to 2504, the S&P 500 slipped 2 to 1449, and the Dow shed 15 to 12,632. Volume rose to 2.78 billion shares on the NYSE, but declined to 1.92 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancing issues led by a few shares on the NYSE, while decliners led by an 18-12 margin on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 47% on the NYSE, and 63% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 287-23 on the NYSE, and 173-43 on the Nasdaq.