A Few Stocks Weighing Down the Dow

The markets started today on a positive note. The major indices popped off the block in the early morning and carried their momentum through to the tape with all three finishing about 0.5% higher for the day.  

Top of Form IndexBottom of Form	Gain / Loss	Gain / Loss %	Ending Value
Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI )	+45.03	+.36%	12,623
Nasdaq	+18.62	+.67%	2,788
S&P 500	+6.46	+.49%	1,314

The major indices being up, though, doesn't mean all ships rose with the tide. In fact, there were some Dow components that seemed determined for underperformance today no matter what happened .    

Who did what?

• Pfizer (NYSE: PFE  ) opened lower out of the gates today, then fought back a bit to end down --0.77% for the day. The biggest, most recent news out of the company is the official white flag being waved on the effort to develop Alzheimer's candidate dimebon with Medivation (Nasdaq: MDVN  ) . After yet another round of disappointing results for the drug, the two companies have abandoned efforts.

• McDonalds (NYSE: MCD  ) fell 0.62% for the day.  After being the Dow's top-performing stock of 2011, all eyes are on The Golden Arches to see if they will pull off a repeat performance in 2012. Motley Fool editor Anand Chokkavelu highlights the bear/bull tug of war on how they'll perform over the next year. Between the high multiple, changing consumer habits, and operational quality there are certainly a multitude of cases to be made.

• Rounding out the losers for the day were Chevron (NYSE: CVX  ) and du Pont (NYSE: DD  ) , both posting a loss of 0.32%. Crude oil was one of the rare negatives for the day, ending 0.15% lower than open. While Chevron is essentially flat so far this year, du Pont is up an impressive 7.9% thus far for 2012. These minor retractions today are nothing to fret over.

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