Wall Street: Mon mid-session
STOCKS hovered around the unchanged mark, thanks to fears that much of the robust earnings news of this reporting season has already been discounted in the market after a big run-up on Wall Street over the past few months.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was unchanged at 9,721. The broad Standard & Poor's 500 shed 1 point, or 0.15%, to 1,037. The technology-packed Nasdaq Composite Index lost 2 points, or 0.13%, to 1,909.
Today kicked off the most hectic week of the third-quarter earnings season, with around one-third of the Standard & Poor's 500 companies are due to issue financial results.
Citigroup, the world's biggest financial services company, shed 24 cents to $48.14. Citigroup said third-quarter profit rose 20% to a record high, helped by higher investment banking, retail banking and credit card revenue, and fewer loan defaults.
Lexmark International surged $2.81, or 4.1%, to $70.06. The company said third-quarter earnings rose as revenue climbed 11%, driven by strong sales of inkjet and laser printers and ink supplies. The company also forecast a bigger fourth-quarter profit than analysts' average estimates.
3M, whose products range from Scotch tape to fibreoptics connectors, rose 56 cents to $74.61 after posting better-than-expected quarterly earnings on the weaker US dollar and strong sales in the Asia-Pacific Rim area.
Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings tumbled $3.29, or 16.5%, to $16.68. The company said the US Food and Drug Administration wants more clinical trials before the agency will approve its two painkiller medicines.
Pozen plunged $5.64, or 31.7%, to $12.13. Pozen and Xcel Pharmaceuticals said US regulators rejected their request to market an experimental drug for migraine headache because it failed to relieve certain symptoms of migraines, such as nausea and sensitivity to light and sound.
