Markets Lower As Investors Monitor Debt Reduction Talks

The markets recovered earlier losses but continued to trade lower during the midday with the Dow losing 36 points to 12,644 as Congressional leaders prepared to grapple with several deficit reduction plans. Nasdaq slipped a point to 2857.

On the upside

A Seeking Alpha article on Sunday said that Atrinsic (Nasdaq: ATRN) stock will triple.

Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR) increased its capital investment target for 2011 - 2015 to $224.7 billion.

Westinghouse Solar (Nasdaq: WEST) will supply Lennar (NYSE: LEN) with solar power systems for certain new home communities.

On the downside

Shares of American Airlines parent AMR (NYSE: AMR), United Continental (NYSE: UAL) and US Airways (NYSE: LCC) all fell after airfares were raised.

Stifel Nicolaus lowered its price target for IMAX (NYSE: IMAX) from $32 per share to $27 saying that fourth quarter sales will be weak.

A Seeking Alpha article said that Oncothyreon's (Nasdaq: ONTY) lung cancer treatment Stimuvax will most likely fail a Phase III clinical trial.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 4 points to 837.