Last Friday, when the Dow closed above 14,000 for only the 15th time ever, a number of market commentators were calling for a correction. Well, they didn't have to wait long for their predictions to come true. As of 12:45 p.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.56%) is down 116 points, or 0.83%, to 13,893. Cisco is the only one of its 30 components trading higher. The other major indexes are also dropping, with the S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.88%) down 0.92% and the NASDAQ down 1.2%.
So who's down and why?
Shares of Chevron (CVX 1.54%) are down 1% after the stock was downgraded by analysts at UBS from "buy" to "neutral." Chevron has outperformed its industry peers over the past year, and the analyst is said to have based the downgrade on the stock's valuation, which has, in his opinion, gotten ahead of the stock price for now. UBS now has a price target of $120 for Chevron.
Wal-Mart (WMT 0.46%) was also downgraded this morning. JPMorgan analyst Christopher Horvers cut his rating from "outperform" to "neutral." He now believes the stock will trade in the neighborhood of $75 over the next year. The previous price target was set at $84 per share. Horvers gave a number of reasons for the downgrade, including growing pressure on the economy, his belief that sales have peaked after several years of strong growth, and the burden of the increased payroll tax on Wal-Mart customers. The company's shares are down 1.5% so far today.
It was announced earlier today that Japan Airlines and Boeing (BA -0.24%) will discuss compensation for the airline's grounding of its fleet of 787 Dreamliners. Japan Airlines operates seven of the 50 Dreamliners that were grounded because of issues with the plane's battery system. The carrier is claiming that it will cost roughly $8 million for the planes to sit on the ground through the end of March. The airline wants to get the planes fixed and back in the air as quickly as possible, which it says will help with growing demand in European, North American, and Southeast Asian routes. Shares of Boeing are down 0.1% today.
