It's always easy to take a contrary view of the stock market. From a skeptical point of view, the Federal Reserve's Beige Book included a number of troubling findings, including a slow manufacturing sector and a general lack of strong job growth. Second-quarter GDP came in at just 1.7%, slower than its pace in the first quarter and far from the robust recovery that most Americans would prefer to see. With macroeconomic headwinds around the world, it's easy to understand why the Dow Jones Industrials (INDEX: ^DJI) couldn't put together a stronger performance than just a four-point rise.

Indeed, some Dow stocks didn't even do that well. Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) fell 1.4% following news that the state of New York is looking into Monster Beverage (Nasdaq: MNST) and other energy-drink producers and their marketing practices and disclosures. Bizarrely, the move came even though Coke wasn't one of the companies that New York's Attorney General subpoenaed. Still, investors can look at increasing oversight of beverage companies as part of a troubling trend that could hurt Coke in the long run.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) also finished with a substantial loss, dropping 1.3%. An analyst at Sterne Agee pointed to high prices holding back Ultrabook laptops that Intel has pushed heavily, as well as a rash of new products coming this fall that will take attention away from Ultrabooks and PC-based technology generally.

Finally, United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) fell 0.6%. Japan's Daikin announced that it will buy Goodman Global for $3.7 billion, vaulting it past United Tech's Carrier segment as the largest maker of HVAC equipment. Daikin will represent new competition for United Tech, obviously, but it shouldn't add a huge obstacle to the Carrier segment's growth going forward.

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