U.S. stock markets booked a rather uninspiring start to the week, as domestic recession worries took precedence over Friday's European jubilation. With acute fears from overseas temporally dashed, today's action was fueled by a disheartening ISM manufacturing report in the U.S., which came in at levels not seen since July 2009. Economist expectations were for a reading of 52, while the actual numbers came in at 49.7, suggesting that manufacturing conditions worsened in June. The final tally was relatively flat day for both the Dow Jones Industrial Average
Away from economic data, it was a busy Monday for acquisition announcements, with multiple announcements including Dell's purchase of Quest Software, Micron's
Today's Dow laggards were a Who's Who of the industrials sector, with the likes of General Electric , Caterpillar
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