U.S. MARKET AVERAGES

The U.S. stock markets opened lower, after the broad rally Monday, fuelled by the announcement of Ben Bernanke’s nomination to succeed Fed Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Disappointing fourth-quarter guidance from semiconductor Texas Instruments weighed on the market sentiment, adding to investors’ concerns about a slowing economy and lower corproate earnings.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow fell 17.29, or 0.17%. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 2.74, or 0.23%, and the Nasdaq composite index lost 2.75, or 0.23%.

The 10-year yield is currently down less than a basis point to 4.442%.

HMO stocks are among the most notable movers to the downside in the early going, dragged down by Coventry Health Care (CVH: chart), currently down 6.4% on earnings and guidance news. Sierra Health Services (SIE) is also posting a considerable weakness on quarterly results.

The Technology sector is another drag of the market, including losses in Internet, disk drive and computer hardware stocks. The gaming and defense sectors are other notable decliners.

The utility sector is extending gains from the previous two sessions. The gold sector continues its recent advance climbing by 2.7%.

The Conference Board revealed that its index of consumer confidence dropped to 85 in October, compared to the 87.5 recorded for September. The reading disappointed economists, who were generally expecting the index to bounce back from September's slide to a level of about 89.

Information on existing home sales was also released. For September, the measure came in unchanged from August's revised rate of 7.28 million units. Economists had expected a dip to a rate around 7.25 million units.

In corporate news, an investor group led by Merrill Lynch (MER: chart) is said to be interested in acquiring bankrupt Refco's futures brokerage.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Texas Instruments (TXN: chart) posted a 12% increase in third-quarter net income, but announced a fourth-quarter sales prediction that disappointed some investors and revealed a demand issue. The company’s stock lost 4.4%.

Chemical giant DuPont (DD: chart) reported a third-quarter loss of $82 million and narrowed fourth-quarter earnings forecast. The company said this third-quarter loss came largely due to tax and hurricane-related charges. DuPont earned $331 million in the same period a year ago. The company’s stock was down 2.2%.

Dow component Intel Corp. (INTC: chart) announced it will postpone the launch of one of its chips for the corporate server market to work on the design. The company’s stock fell 0.4%.

Ameritrade (AMTD: chart) may have to fix earnings for several past periods because of some hedging transactions the company made in 2003. Ameritrade’s stock dropped 0.6%.

Northrop Grumman (NOC: chart) said its third-quarter earnings fell slightly below a year-ago positions, citing damages from the recent hurricanes. The company expects earnings from continuing operations in 2006 to reach $4.10-$4.30 a share on sales of about $32 billion. Northrop is likely to be active today.

ECONOMIC NEWS

Consumer confidence continued to deteriorate in the month of October, according to a report from the Conference Board, surprising economists who had expected some improvement following a steep drop in September.

The Conference Board said that its consumer confidence index fell to 85.0 in October from an upwardly revised 87.5 in September. Economists had been expecting the index to increase to 89.0 compared to the 86.6 originally reported for September.

Lynn Franco, Director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center said, “Much of the decline in confidence over the past two months can be attributed to the recent hurricanes, pump shock and a weakening labor market.”