Bears Rule Regular Session as Consumer Sentiment, Earnings Weigh 01/28 12:48 PM
12:48 PM Eastern Standard Time, 01/28/2011 (MidnightTrader) -- Bears are out in force at mid-day as losses at the major US indexes deepened following disappointing earnings results from Ford (F), Microsoft (MSFT:$27.751,0$-1.119,0-3.88%) and Amazon.com (AMZN:$171.14,00$-13.31,00-7.22%) . A drop in consumer sentiment also weighed on the markets, as well as unrest in Egypt. In the latest economic data, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 74.2 from 74.5 in December. Also, real gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the U.S economy, rose at a 3.2% annualized rate in the fourth quarter, up from a 2.6% rate in the third quarter. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected Q4 GDP to rise of 3.5%. On the upside, consumer spending rose at a 4.4% annual rate in the final three months of the year, the fastest pace since the first quarter of 2006. Inventories were a big drag on growth in the fourth quarter but this was largely offset by a positive contribution from net exports. For the year, GDP advanced 2.9%, compared with a 2.6% drop in 2009. This is the strongest growth rate in five years. In company news: ADRs of Sanofi-Aventis (SNY:$33.3500,$-1.9000,-5.39%) are down after the drug maker saw disappointing results from an experiment breast cancer drug it was developing. Sanofi's BSI-201 did not slow a certain type of aggressive breast tumor, Sanofi said in a statement. The news comes as a setback for Sanofi, which has been trying to acquire Genzyme (GENZ:$71.10,00$-0.18,00-0.25%) . Borders (BGP:$0.8489,$0.0429,5.32%) is up sharply after it said late Thursday it has received a commitment from GE Capital, Restructuring Finance to provide a $550 million senior secured credit facility. Upon completion, it will include $125 million of additional junior debt financing via the conversion of vendor payables and/or external sources
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