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Investors Pause After Huge September

October 4, 2010 10:55 AM EDT
After flipping in and out of positive territory in early trade, stocks moved lower heading into mid-day trading as economic data failed to inspire buyers.

At noon, Dow is down 102 points to 10,727, the Nasdaq is down 35 points to 2,336 and the S&P 500 is down 13 points to 1,133.

August pending home sales rose 4.3 percent in August, which was better than the consensus of a 2.5 percent rise. August Factory orders were down 0.5 percent in August, more than the consensus of a 0.4 percent drop.

Weakness in Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), which was downgraded today by Goldman Sachs, is weighing on both the Dow and tech-heavy Nasdaq. Shares of Microsoft are down 2 percent after the firm downgraded the stock to Neutral, saying they aren't doing enough to unlock value.

With a huge rally in September, investors may be reluctant to put new money to work ahead of third quarter earnings season, which kicks off this week with Alcoa (NYSE: AA) reporting after the close on October 7.


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Factory Orders, Pending Home Sales, Standard & Poor's