Stocks Lose Ground on Downbeat Data

Company News

After the closing bell, a cadre of tech sector players announced quarterly results. Dell(DELL) bested Wall Street projections on both the top and bottom-lines, earning 32 cents a share on $15.53 billion in sales. The stock traded 1.2% lower at $12.04, and continued losing ground in after-hours trading.

Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) confirmed its previously announced headline figures after the closing bell, as analysts awaited the third-quarter conference call after Thursday's closing bell. The company preannounced earnings of $1.08 a share on sales of $30.7 billion on Aug. 6 when it announced the resignation of CEO Mark Hurd. Shares lost 1.5% at $40.76 during the regular period.

Marvell(MRVL) said its second quarter revenue rose 40% to $896 million, which was a little lighter than expected, while its adjusted earnings of 40 cents a share landed right in-line with estimates. The firm also announced a $500 million buyback.

Teen retailer Aeropostale(ARO) reported late, falling short of sales and outlook expectations. Gap(GPS) topped profit forecasts by a penny following the end of the session, reporting earnings of 36 cents a share, though the retailer also offered notice of rising inventories.

Conglomerates, capital goods and transportation sectors led losses Thursday with Intel, General Electric(GE), and Alcoa(AA) serving as the Dow's biggest laggards. All components finished in the red, though IBM(IBM) and McDonald's(MCD) showed the mildest declines.

Starting Aug. 22, banks and credit card companies will have to include further measures to avoid customer credit card abuses. Shares of banks with large credit card businesses like JPMorgan Chase(JPM), Bank of America(BAC) and Wells Fargo(WFC) lost more than 2% each today. Capital One's(COF) stock shed 3.7%, to $37.61.

Shares of Caterpillar (CAT) dropped 0.7% at $69.29 after the company released monthly sales data showing that global retail sales of its core rolling machinery jumped 32% year over year for the period between June 10 and July 10.

McDonald's said it raised $29.4 million through yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong. The stock lost 0.4% to $72.97.

Sears(SHLD) narrowed its loss in the second quarter but sales of $10.5 billion were slightly lower than what Wall Street was looking for. The stock shed 9.1% at $61.11.

Staples(SPLS) met analysts' estimates with an adjusted second-quarter profit of 20 cents a share. The office retailer also said it expects third-quarter sales to rise in the low single digits with adjusted earnings projected in a range of 39 to 40 cents a share. It sees full-year earnings of $1.25 to $1.29 a share. Shares slipped 3.5% to $18.97.

Shares of GameStop (GME) lost 8.2% at $19.06 after the company missed its consensus earnings target by a penny with a second-quarter profit of 26 cents a share and issued disappointing guidance for the second-half of the year.

Research In Motion(RIMM) is looking to pick up a mobile advertising network, according to the Wall Street Journal. The stock was off by 0.5% at $50.46.

MasterCard(MA) agreed to acquire DataCash Group, a European payments service provider, for around $520 million. MasterCard's stock finished 1.9% lower at $208.89.

BP (BP) successfully capped the Macondo well but pushed the date of the relief well operation back to Sept. 6. The stock lost 2.8% at $36.24.

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