The markets extended its losses during the midday with the Dow falling 66 points to 12,036 in reaction to Oracle's disappointing earnings miss. Nasdaq plunged 49 points to 2554.
On the upside
Goldman Sachs lifted its price target on Cobalt International Energy (NYSE: CIE) from $14 per share to $21 per share and added the oil exploration and production company to its Americas Buy List.
Cintas (Nasdaq: CTAS) reported higher second quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations as revenue climbed.
The Shaw Group (NYSE: SHAW) reversed year ago losses to post a better than expected profit for first quarter.
On the downside
Oracle's (Nasdaq: ORCL) earnings miss weighed down shares of business software firms Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), Teradata (NYSE: TDC), Tibco Software (Nasdaq: TIBX) and Vmware (NYSE: VMW).
CarMax (NYSE: KMX) reported flat third quarter earnings that fell short of analyst estimates.
KB Home (NYSE: KBH) reported lower fourth quarter earnings.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 6 points to 731.
