The major indices have opened with losses and continue to trend lower.
The decline is broad based with eight of the ten sectors showing
declines.
Losses are most pronounced among industrial companies (-5.4%). Their
decline is largely due to General Electric (GE 22.29, -2.21), which is
pricing a capital raise at a substantial discount to yesterday's
closing price. Early indications suggest the pricing will come in at
$22.25 per share.
Health care is showing some relative strength (+0.3%). Eli Lilly (LLY
43.81) was named by The Wall Street Journal as the secret bidder behind
an offer to acquire ImClone (IMCL 65.12, -0.23) for $70 per share.