Yesterday's hard-fought gains are awash in a sea of red today, with recent trading showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) down around 150 points, a 1.2% fall for the day. With a lack of market-moving domestic data to digest, markets keyed in on... you guessed it... Europe! Forget Obama vs. Romney -- the real election to worry about is Greece, where the New Democracy and Syriza parties are in a neck-and-neck struggle for support in advance of parliamentary elections to be held on June 17. A poll out today suggested that Syriza, the anti-bailout party, has taken the lead away from the conservative New Democracy group after the latter led in six prior polls.
Around the Dow
Reminding us of Newton's third law, "To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction," industrial giants Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) and Alcoa (NYSE: AA) gave back some of Tuesday's gains. As two of yesterday's best performers, they're now Dow cellar-dwellers, with both down about 2.6% in recent trading. Yesterday's news of additional Chinese stimulus has fallen on deaf ears today as fears of a protracted European recession once again take center stage.
Facebook In Motion?
The big tech story -- outside of Facebook's (Nasdaq: FB) massive plunge yesterday -- is the market reaction to BlackBerry maker Research In Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) announcement that it expects an operating loss in its fiscal first quarter. BlackBerry sales have plummeted worldwide in response to the growing popularity of devices running Google's Android operating system as well as the continued dominance of the Apple iPhone line. Shares are down nearly 7% in today's trading as hopes for a turnaround fade and the company explores strategic options, which likely include finding a suitor to purchase the company outright or monetizing separate parts of the business. While the likelihood of Facebook emerging as a buyer is long shot at best, the social network has expressed a serious interest in developing its own mobile device as part of an ongoing effort to monetize a growing population of mobile users. However, given negative investor reaction yesterday over rumors Facebook was eyeing Opera Software, as well as reports the company is already developing an Android-based mobile handset, the chances seem minimal.
The negative sentiment surrounding Facebook is palpable, and at this point I'm not convinced it's overdone. Facebook has a lot to prove as a public company, but if you're looking for an online leader that's already proving itself, this company is a fraction of Facebook's size but boasts some revenue weapons the social networking juggernaut probably wishes it had. Find out more about this company in our special report: "Forget Facebook -- Here's the Tech IPO You Should Be Buying." Pick up your free copy today by clicking here.
