Stocks opened lower as investors continued to worry about the lack of job creation and weakness in the economy. The Dow lost 20 points to 12,130 while Nasdaq gave up 4 points to 2728 shortly after the opening bell.
On the upside
Shares of RXI Pharmaceutials (Nasdaq: RXII) rose after announcing positive phase 2 clinical results for its breast cancer drug treatment.
Investors eagerly watched the wires for an announcement by Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) about its not-so-secret iCloud music hosting service.
BMO Capital upgraded shares of Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) citing the coffee retailer's earnings rebound.
On the downside
Shares of Exelixis (Nasdaq: EXEL) tumbled after the drug developer reported an experimental drug led to side effects that caused 6 deaths in its clinical trials.
The banking sector was mostly lower. Shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) fell by more than 1%.
Shares of GenPro (Nasdaq: GPRO) fell on worries that potential buyers may not follow through with offers for the blood diagnostics company.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 2 points to 806.
