Early Gains Overcome by Heavy Selling

Stocks experienced a roller coaster ride on Tuesday, before closing in the red. An early morning rally, on positive earnings and deal news, was reversed in the afternoon, with all the major averages surrendering their gains, leading to a heavy selloff in the last hour of trading.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced plans to cut 3-4% of its workforce (full story), profit rose at Northwest Airlines (NWA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) (read more), and Hilton Hotels (HLT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported that profits increased in the second quarter.

American Home Mortgage (AHM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) resumed trading and promptly fell 90%.

According to the Wall Street Journal, it appears that News Corp. (NWS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is on the verge of clinching a deal for Dow Jones (DJ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating).

Marathon Oil (MRO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) agreed to acquire Western Oil Sands in a cash and stock deal worth $6.2 billion, including debt (full story).

Join TradingMarkets Director of Education, Steve Primo, as he teaches a number of quantitative strategies that can potentially give you an edge in your trading.

Sign up now for one of our free training classes and start learning how to become a better trader.

TradingMarkets subscribers have access to 16 quantitative stock indicators and another 17 quantitative market bias indicators. These indicators are derived from our proprietary database that includes millions of trades, and designed to give you a short-term trading edge.

Each day, we provide free open access to one of these proprietary stock indicators. If you would like to access all 16 stock indicators, 17 market bias indicators, along with many other tools, click here for a free 7-day TradingMarkets trial.