The Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/zigman/627449 DJIA -0.06% lost 12.80 points, or 0.1%, to 13,941.62 in late morning trade. Boeing Co. /quotes/zigman/220026/quotes/nls/ba BA +1.22% was among blue-chip gainers after the aircraft maker reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street’s estimates.
MarketWatch’s Polya Lesova tells investors why she's watching stock from Facebook, Boeing, Research in Motion and Amazon in the markets today.
The S&P 500 index /quotes/zigman/3870025 SPX -0.12% was down 2.61 points, or 0.2%, at 1,505.23, with the financial sector the worst performer and telecommunications the best of its 10 major industry groups.
U.S.-listed shares of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. /quotes/zigman/18534/quotes/nls/rimm RIMM -5.05% fell 5% after the Canadian company said it would change its name to BlackBerry.
The Nasdaq Composite /quotes/zigman/12633936 COMP -0.0078% shed 1.42 point to 3,152.22, with the technology-laden index’s losses lessened by a 7.8% rise in shares of Amazon.com Inc. /quotes/zigman/63011/quotes/nls/amzn AMZN +6.17% a day after the online retailer reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter gross profit margins.
Social-networking company Facebook Inc. /quotes/zigman/9962609/quotes/nls/fb FB +1.75% climbed 1.9% ahead of its quarterly earnings report expected after Wednesday’s close. Read: Is Facebook growing fast enough for Wall Street?
For every five stocks advancing nearly nine declined on the New York Stock Exchange, where 182 million shares traded as of 11 a.m. Eastern. Composite volume surpassed 1 billion.
/conga/story/misc/investing.html 245777Stock-index futures fell after the Commerce Department reported fourth-quarter gross domestic product dropped at a 0.1% annual rate, the worst performance since the second quarter of 2009, when the economy remained in recession. Read: U.S. economy shrinks in fourth quarter.
“For the first half of 2013, we do not envisage a very strong acceleration in economic growth,” Kathy Bostjancic, director for macroeconomic analysis at the Conference Board, said in a statement.
“However, there are reasons for hope in the second half of the year as the fiscal drag wanes and housing, which long created a drag on the economy, continues to turn from a headwind to a tailwind,” she added.
A separate report from a payrolls processor said private companies added 192,000 workers in January, with the better-than-expected rise coming ahead of Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for January. Read: ADP shows improving labor market in January.
The Federal Reserve will release a policy statement Wednesday afternoon after a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. Read: Fed to press ahead with bond buying.
The FOMC is expected to keep policy unchanged and continue its aggressive bond buying in an effort to boost the economy. Read: 10 worst Fed days for S&P 500 since 2008.
Treasury prices dropped on Wednesday, with the benchmark 10-year yield /quotes/zigman/4868283/delayed 10_YEAR +1.15% rising 3 basis points to 2.029%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
In the currency markets, the dollar index /quotes/zigman/1652083 DXY -0.39% , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, dropped 0.4% to 79.262. The euro /quotes/zigman/4867933/sampled EURUSD +0.5989% climbed 0.7% to $1.3573. Read: Euro highest versus dollar in 14 months.
Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York.
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