On an up and down day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) managed to end the trading session slightly lower than where it began. As the closing bell rang, the Dow sat at 13,077, down more than 25 points, or 0.19%. Closing the day down 25 points looks great after last Friday's and yesterday's 200-plus-point slide, but the market did once again close lower, and it seems as if the bulls are getting bullied by the bears.
Twenty-two Dow stocks were in the red today, and this afternoon I explained why AT&T (NYSE: T), Dupont (NYSE: DD), and IBM (Nasdaq: IBM) were moving lower. Keep reading to find out why Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) also were in the red today.
So why are they down?
Cisco was the biggest loser today, with its shares dropping 3.5%, most likely related to rival Juniper Networks' (NYSE: JNPR) third-quarter earnings announcement. Juniper's revenue and earnings were decent, but what shocked the markets was that the company stated lackluster guidance moving forward for both the company and the networking sector in general.
Hewlett-Packard was the second biggest loser of the day, with the stock shedding 1.54% after CEO Meg Whitman said HP won't have a product in the smartphone industry until 2014 at the earliest. Investors were upset with Whitman's comments a few weeks ago regarding the timetable for turning around the company as a whole.
Bank of America moved lower by 0.53% today after it was announced that the Department of Justice had brought a $1 billion lawsuit against the company. The DOJ claims that Bank of America committed mortgage fraud on loans that were sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The news doesn't come as a surprise to most shareholders, but it still adds to possible liabilities the bank now has to carry and puts another black mark on the bank's name.
