Stocks finished lower Monday, as an early rally in technology shares failed to inspire blue chip investors, who fretted over a strike at GM and the state of the housing and credit markets.
Some profit-taking was likely after last week’s big Federal Reserve-inspired rally, and news of the first strike by the UAW against GM since 1976 took the wind out of an early rally. Comments from analysts that the credit market crisis could be worse than feared also weighed on stocks.
Still, the tech sector had a number of standouts, including Microsoft, which rallied 1.5% to $29.08 ahead of its much-anticipated Halo 3 release. Microsoft was also reported to be in talks to invest in Facebook.
EMC soared 7.8% to $20.51 after several analysts said the stock is a cheaper way to play the VMware craze. EMC spinoff VMware also rose, adding 5.7% to $83.83.
Apple was another gainer, rising 3% to $148.28 on a $185 Citigroup price target, and market leaders Google, Research In Motion and Baidu.com all hit fresh all-time highs.
C-Cor soared 21.7% to $12.02 on a buyout agreement with Arris, whose shares lost 16% to $11.98.
Mattson Technology and Red Hat fell on downgrades, and Adtran slumped 13.5% after lowering guidance.
The Nasdaq lost 3 to 2667, the S&P fell 8 to 1517, and the Dow lost 61 to 13,759. Volume rose to 3.1 billion shares on the NYSE, but declined to 1.92 billion shares on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 19-12 margin on the NYSE, and 18-11 on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 138-92 on the NYSE and 134-78 on the Nasdaq.
