Mortgage rates rose to weigh the markets down during the midday with the Dow falling 66 points to 11,45. Nasdaq eased a fraction to 2604.
On the upside
A Forbes article on Chinese stocks highlighted the surge in Sina's (Nasdaq: SINA) stock price this year.
Prescription data company IMS Health used incomplete data last month and may have underestimated sales for Vertex Pharmaceuticals' (Nasdaq: VRTX) hepatitis C treatment Incivek.
Fairchild Semiconductor (NYSE: FCS) reported flat third quarter earnings but the results topped analyst estimates.
On the downside
Fitch Ratings placed Barclays (NYSE: BCS) on watch for a possible downgrade.
Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu lowered his third quarter revenue and earnings guidance for Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) and cut his price target to $31 from $35.
Investors locked in profits on Cemex (NYSE: CX).
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 10 points to 689.
