The Dow's 3 Biggest Losers

It was a fairly volatile day in the markets, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) fought back after dropping nearly 100 points to end the day flat and preserve yesterday's 337-point gain.

A larger-than-expected $650 billion loan deal buoying some 500 European banks helped take the sour taste out of investors' mouths after Oracle reported its first earnings miss in a decade and lowered guidance. Naturally, the biggest losers today were all tech companies, save United Technologies (NYS: UTX) , which was down 1% on no news.

As investors worried that Oracle's quarterly report wasn't a one-off, IBM (NYS: IBM) led the decline down 3.1%, followed by Cisco (NAS: CSCO) , down 2.6%, and Hewlett-Packard (NYS: HPQ) , down 1.8%. Without Big Blue dragging on it, the Dow would have closed up 50 points.

Looking outside the Dow, the Nasdaq fared the worst, dropping 1%, while the S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC) was the top performer of the trio with a measly 0.2% gain. It wasn't all bad earnings news today, though, as clothing and lifestyle impresario Nike (NYS: NKE) was up 2.9% after beating analysts' earnings estimates by $0.03 a share.

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At the time thisarticle was published David Williamsonholds no position in any company mentioned. Check out hisholdings and a short bio. The Motley Fool owns shares of IBM and Cisco Systems and has created a bull call spread position on Cisco Systems.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of Cisco Systems and Nike and creating a diagonal call position in Nike. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

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