Among leaders and laggards on Wall Street at midday, Intel Corp. took a hit after a Goldman Sachs analyst downgraded the stock from the "Conviction Buy List," according to a report by Yahoo Finance.
Also moving down was JP Morgan Chase & Co. – but that’s no surprise taking into account the aftermath of the subprime fiasco. Personally, I’ve rated UBS to "underperform."
Nonetheless, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke testified that the Fed would cut rates further if needed to turn the economy around from a looming recession.
Analysts in general say that a recession in the U.S. would affect global financial markets.
Among the winners was Alcoa Inc. which spiked on talk of a takeover bid.
And Yahoo continues to take center stage with news of a News Corp-Yahoo liason, although Microsoft shows no signs of backing down from the hostile bid. And according to analysts Google is running scared ; apparently, the search engine leader has just a one area of focus – the search engine mania will not last for ever, said one analyst on a video on Yahoo Finance.