Why the Dow Dropped 100-Plus Points This Morning
After days of being stuck in neutral, the stock market finally made a move, but it wasn't one that made investors very happy. Most analysts pointed to weak confidence figures from Europe as a reminder that the sovereign-debt situation on the Continent is far from solved. Nervousness about tomorrow's speech from Ben Bernanke also took its toll, as the Dow Jones Industrials (INDEX: ^DJI) traded down more than 100 points this morning.
Around 10:45 a.m. EDT, just one Dow component traded higher: Coca-Cola (NYS: KO) , by a single penny. News reports that the beverage company got the go-ahead to produce energy drinks in India is a sign of the continuing importance of emerging markets to Coca-Cola's overall growth, even if the energy-drink segment is coming under pressure from regulators and government officials.
Meanwhile, losses were consistent across most sectors. AT&T (NYS: T) was off 0.6% even as it announced plans to open its first flagship retail location, choosing Chicago's high-profile Magnificent Mile shopping district for the store. With increasing competition from Verizon as the companies prepare for the coming release of the iPhone 5, AT&T hopes to take a page from Apple (NAS: AAPL) and duplicate the iPhone-maker's retail success.
Finally, Johnson & Johnson (NYS: JNJ) fell 0.7%. The company's Janssen subsidiary announced a deal by with Danish biotech Genmab to gain the global licensing rights to daratumumab, a cancer-fighting antibody in development. Although the upfront license fee of $55 million is relatively small, J&J also agreed to invest $80 million in Genmab shares. The move shows how important it is for big pharma companies like J&J to keep their pipelines full.
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The article Why the Dow Dropped 100-Plus Points This Morning originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Dan Caplinger doesn't own shares of the companies mentioned. You can follow him on Twitter @DanCaplinger. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Coca-Cola, and Johnson & Johnson. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Coca-Cola, Apple, and Johnson & Johnson, as well as creating a diagonal call position on Johnson & Johnson and a bull call spread position on Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
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