FedEx, the delivery service, warned it will miss quarterly earnings targets, joining companies as diverse as Starbucks, Compaq Computer and Aetna. 3Com, meanwhile, said it will lay off 30 percent of its work force on the heels of a report showing the nation's unemployment rate rose to its highest level since 1998 in April. But since the end of the first quarter, which was a brutal time for stocks, Wall Street has looked beyond troubling economic and corporate news in a bet that lower interest rates will revive growth. Some expect the optimism to continue.
Most major indexes are down year to date.
Still, stocks remain well above their worst levels of the year, hit in late March and early April. Michael Farr, president of Farr Miller and Washington, told Market Call. That is the big question. The Nasdaq composite index shed 17.98 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,173.55 while the Dow Jones industrial average declined 16.07 to 10,935.17. The blue chip index came within 5 points of the 11,000 mark, a level it last close above in September.