Stocks Limp Out of Second Quarter

Del Monte Foods (DLM Quote) said Sunday it would sell its seafood business, which includes StarKist canned tuna, to South Korean food company Dongwon Enterprise for $363 million. Shares tumbled 6.6% to $7.10.

As for earnings, tax-services company H&R Block (HRB Quote) said it swung to a fourth-quarter profit from a loss a year ago, beating analysts' expectations. The stock gained 2.8% to $21.40.

Investors were putting money to work outside the financial space, giving the telecom and health care sector a chance to shine. Blue-chips Verizon (VZ Quote) and Merck (MRK Quote) led the Dow, as well as their respective sectors, into the green zone. Verizon ticked up 3.3% to $35.40, and Merck added 1.9% to $37.69.

Technology stocks had some trouble, weighing on the Nasdaq. A French court ordered online auction block eBay (EBAY Quote) to pay $63 million to luxury goods purveyor Luis Vuitton Moet Hennessy and sister company Christian Dior over eBay's sale of knockoff accessories and perfumes. eBay lost 1% to $27.33.

Elsewhere in the Internet area, Yahoo! (YHOO Quote) said in a presentation filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Microsoft (MSFT Quote) was inconsistent in its buyout overtures, and may never have been committed to a takeover. Yahoo! shares fell 3% to 20.66.

On the data side, the June Chicago purchasing managers index offered a glimmer of hope, rising to 49.6 from 49.1 in May, beating the consensus estimate of 48.

"I wouldn't necessarily call that a tier-1 economic data point," said Stephen Sachs, director of trading at Rydex Investments, of the Chicago PMI. As the market retests the March lows, traders are going to be paying special attention to any data release, said Sachs. "Anything better than expectations at this point is going to be a positive."