LONDON (ShareCast) - US investors are adopting a wait and see attitude ahead of the start of the third quarter results season which will be kicked off by aluminium giant Alcoa (NYSE: AA - news)
later today.
The Dow Jones is down 34 points at 9,696, the S&P 500 is 1 point lower at 1,053 but the NASDAQ Composite (NASDAQ: news) is up half a point at 2,104.
The tech heavy NASDAQ (NASDAQ: news) 's performance is boosted by Amazon, which today confirmed it would sell its popular wireless reading device, the Kindle, in Europe. The company also cut the price of the book reading device by $40 to head off competition from rival electronic book devices such as Sony (Munich: 853687 - news) 's e-reader and Interead's Cool-er.
Video game publisher Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS - news) was another NASDAQ stock flying high after it said it sales of FIFA 2010 hit a record 1.7m copies in the first week of release in Europe.
Housebuilders such as Pulte, KB Homes and D R Horton (NYSE: DHI - news) were hit by speculation from Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) that US lawmakers may not extend a tax credit to first-time house buyers when the tax break expires in November.
In the retail sector warehouse club operator Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST - news) reported better than expected quarterly profits. Earnings fell to $374m in the quarter to August 30, compared with $398m the previous year. Meanwhile, discounter Family Dollar saw its fourth quarter earnings jump 13%.
In other news, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the race to succeed Kenneth Lewis as Bank of America (NYSE: IKJ - news) chief executive has narrowed to two internal candidates.
Chief risk officer Gregory Curl and consumer and small-business banking chief Brian Moynihan are the inside candidates, the paper is quoting people familiar with the matter as saying.
S&P 500 - Risers
Wyndham Worldwide (NYSE: WYN - news) (WYN) $17.72 +8.98%
Estee Lauder Cos Inc. (EL) $38.40 +4.01%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Interpublic Group (IPG) $6.82 -4.08%
Pulte Homes Inc. (PHM) $10.04 -4.01%
Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Bank Of America Corp. (BAC) $17.27 +1.59%
Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO - news) . (CSCO) $23.67 +1.38%
Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
AT&T Inc. (T) $26.30 -3.13%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $29.49 -2.26%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) $20.00 +4.06%
Nii Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: NIHD - news) . (NIHD) $29.88 +2.89%
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $93.44 +2.78%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $34.97 -3.08%
Cephalon Inc (NASDAQ: CEPH - news) . (CEPH) $54.54 -2.76%
Network Appliance Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP - news) . (NTAP) $26.12 -2.65%
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