Wall Street: Wednesday opening

13 April 2012

STOCKS were narrowly mixed as Dow component Microsoft suffered a record fine from the European Union. Elsewhere, investors were mollified by a better-than-expected factories report.

The European Union fined Microsoft £331m for abusing its 'near monopoly' on the Windows operating system by bundling other software with it in an attempt to shut competitors out of the market. The company must also offer a version of Windows without the Windows Media Player bundled in.

Wall Street was pleased with the latest Commerce Department report on orders for durable goods, which rose 2.5% last month. That was more than double what economists were expecting and far better than the 2.7% drop registered in January.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 2.08, or 0.02% to 10,061.56 and the Nasdaq composite index was up 5.26, or 0.3% at 1,907.06.

Microsoft, which plans to appeal the EU ruling, was up 16 cents at $24.31.

One of Microsoft's up-and-coming competitors, Linux distributor Red Hat, climbed $1.86 to $21.27 after it swung to a profit in the latest quarter, meeting Wall Street expectations.

AT&T said it plans to increase voice-over-internet technology offerings for businesses, giving them an alternative to traditional phone service. AT&T rose 4 cents to $19.41.

Teva Pharmaceutical and Endo Pharmaceuticals both received US Food and Drug Administration approval to make generic versions of the big-selling OxyContin painkillers. Teva gained 97 cents to $62.21, while Endo jumped $3.12 to $23.25.

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