Stocks retreat as weak earnings provide no joy

Stocks sink on Wall Street following uninspiring earnings reports; European markets also sag

2/7/2013

NEW YORK — Stock indexes were falling on Wall Street today, pulling the Dow Jones industrial average further below the multi-year high it reached last week.

The Dow sank 127 points to 13,869 shortly before noon today, a loss of almost 1 percent.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was off 12 points at 1,500, and the Nasdaq composite gave up 27 points to 3,141.

The pullback comes after a strong rally at the beginning of the year pushed indexes to their highest levels since the financial crisis. The Dow closed above 14,000 on Friday for the first time since 2007. It's still up 5.8 percent for the year.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. fell 2.5 percent after the media conglomerate cut its forecast for annual earnings.