Sluggish Economic Growth Weighs Down Markets

Disappointingly sluggish growth of the nation's economy weighed the markets down to a lower open with the Dow plunging 105 points to 12,135. Nasdaq dropped 16 points to 2749.

On the upside

Allied Healthcare International (Nasdaq: AHCI) agreed to be acquired by Saga Group for the premium price of $3.90 per share.

Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL) reported higher second quarter earnings as revenue rose.

Second quarter earnings climbed for Expedia (NYSE: EXPE) to top analyst estimates as revenue increased.

On the downside

STEC (Nasdaq: STEC) reported sharply higher second quarter earnings but the data storage device maker forecast current quarter results that fell far short of analyst expectations prompting downgrades.

Fourth quarter earnings rose for Vistaprint (Nasdaq: VPRT) but the company forecast 2012 earnings well below analyst expectations.

NXP Semiconductors (Nasdaq: NXPI) reversed year ago losses to post a profit for the second quarter but the results fell short of expectations and the company forecast third quarter earnings that missed estimates.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 8 points to 790.