Midday Movers: PlayCore, Hertz, National City and Ameritrade

It was tough to find a sector that wasn't taking it on the chin at midday, but financial stocks were getting hit particularly hard. Among the biggest losers on the Big Board were Lehman Brothers (LEH Quote) down 11 1/8, or 12%, to 81 3/4 and American Express (AXP Quote) which was sliding 8 9/16, or 5.9%, to 137 7/16. The American Stock Exchange Broker/Dealer Index tumbled 43.5, or 9%, to 439, while the Philadelphia Stock Exchange/KBW Bank Index was down 42.47, or 5.3%, to 766.76.

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Quest Diagnostics (DGX Quote) rose 1 5/16 to 44 after it said it expects first-quarter earnings to be about 50% above analyst estimates of 24 cents a share and 2000 year earnings to be about 20% above estimates of $1.47 a share.

Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures

Honeywell's (HON Quote) Thermal Systems business enterprise is buying Britain's Serck Heat Transfer for an undisclosed amount. Honeywell fell 13/16 to 54 11/16. Serck is a supplier of heat transfer equipment for cooling engines, transmissions, turbines, compressors and processes in the marine, power generation, construction and automotive industries. Lehman Brothers raised Honeywell's 12-month price target to 100 from 80. ...