January retail sale rose less than expected to weigh the markets down to a lower open with the Dow losing 32 points to 12,841. Nasdaq fell 10 points to 2921.
On the upside
Michael Kors (NYSE: KORS) reported higher third quarter earnings and revenue that beat analyst expectations and forecast full year results well ahead of estimates.
Fourth quarter earnings for Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) nearly doubled to top analyst estimates.
Fonar (Nasdaq: FONR) reported higher second quarter earnings as revenue climbed.
On the downside
Masco (NYSE: MAS) reported a larger than expected loss for the fourth quarter.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber (NYSE: GT) swung to a profit for the fourth quarter but the results fell short of expectations.
Deutsche Bank expects Germany to cut solar subsidies more than expected sending shares of First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR), JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO) and Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) lower.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks fell 6 points to 818.
