Weakness in share sent Treasury prices higher, with the 10-year closing up 13/32, to 102 11/32.  The yield fell to 3.34%, from 3.39% late Monday.  On Tuesday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average fell 50.71 points, or 0.50%, to 10,041.48.  The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index retreated 6.85 points, or 0.62%, at 1,091.06 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index lost 12.85 points, or 0.59%, to 2,163.47.  Market breadth was negative.  On the New York Stock Exchange, declining shares beat those that rose in price two to one on volume of 1.24 billion shares.

After the close yesterday, Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) reported strong quarterly numbers that were well ahead of Street expectations.  Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) was the leading gainer among the Dow 30 stocks, rising 3.4% after it reported estimate topping numbers.  Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares climbed 4.7%.

Military contractor Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) fell nearly 6% after it announced weak 2010 outlook.  Chemical maker DuPont (NYSE:DD) and UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH) reported better-than-expected numbers, helped by cost-cutting measures.  However, DuPont (NYSE:DD) shares fell 2.2% after the company reported lower-than-expected revenue, even as earnings came in above estimates and the firm raised its full-year outlook.

Coca-Cola's (NYSE:KO) shares dropped 1.3% as it reported revenue below estimates, even as earnings were inline with expectations.  The company noted, "We expect the consumer to continue facing economic uncertainties into 2010 and for consumer sentiment to recover slowly." 

Interestingly, the market’s measure of volatility, the CBOE Vix, continued its southward move, falling 2.75% to 20.90. All ten S&P500 sectors ended in the red, led by declines in utilities (-1.2%), health care (-1.1%), and basic materials (-1.0%).  Technology stocks showed some strength and eased 0.03%.

Oil prices rose to an intraday high of $80.05 yesterday, the highest level in a year, before retreating a little and ending the session off 52 cents at $79.09.  The drop came amid concerns that the world's largest oil consumer might face a weaker-than-expected recovery. Moreover, OPEC Secretary General El-Badri noted that prices above $80 could hinder economic growth.  El-Badri said he does not expect prices above $100 in the near future due to what he called "no shortage of oil supply."

Today's markets will see earnings from big names including Boeing (NYSE:BA), Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), US Bancorp (NYSE:USB) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) before the market opens.

As part of the consolidation, the chemical maker commented that it eliminated the five group vice president positions and their supporting business structures associated with the platforms that house its businesses. The group vice presidents have currently been reabsorbed in new roles within the 14 businesses.
 
Among the various role changes, the most significant was the transfer of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Keefer to lead the Performance Coatings business, corporate strategy development process and overall cost and working capital productivity efforts, effective Nov 1.
 
DuPont claims the streamlined organization will bring business decisions closer to customers and increase transparency and accountability. We continue to maintain our Neutral recommendation on the shares of DuPont with a target price of $33.00.

Shares are down more than 8% so far today.

The chemical maker lost 55 cents per share in the quarter, excluding items, while analysts expected a loss of 21 cents.

Sales declined 33% year over year to $1.69 billion.

Huntsman aims to cut back on costs to counter the falling demand for its products. In January, the company said that it would shed about 10% of its work force. It had also announced plans to slash capital spending.

Analysts, on an average, are expecting a loss of 27 cents per share for the current year, wider than a 2 month-ago projection for a loss of 23 cents.

The trading volume of this Zacks #4 Rank ("Sell") company is currently 8.6 million shares, unusually higher than its daily average of 4.5 million.

ROH expects to save $90 million annually with these actions. However, the chemical maker expects a restructuring and asset impairment charges of $90 million in the fourth quarter.

Rohm & Haas also mentioned that it expects fourth-quarter profit to beat the consensus estimate. Analysts are expecting a profit of 67 cents.

The company is a Zacks #4 Rank ("Sell").

But they threw off their shackles on Friday. Dupont (DD), which fell 46 cents to $45.24 a day earlier, was up by 3.77% to $47.67. Keeping it company was Dow Chemical (DOW), the only one to have bucked the pullback on Thursday, with a surge of 4.16% to trade at $37.31.

But the stock to really watch out for is Olin Corp. (OLN) that climbed by 10.39% to $23.17 in spite of the announcement that caustic soda shipments from its plant in McIntosh, Ala., will be halted until further notice. Praxair, Inc. (PX) too scaled $85.98, up by 4.65%. Dow and Praxair are trading near their 200-Day Moving Average.

Also on the upswing were PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG), Ashland Inc. (ASH) and Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD), all stocks that had tanked on Thursday. However, the biggest chemical maker, BASF (BASFY) was not so lucky, as it was down to $46.83 following a Bloomberg news that the company will cut down polystyrene production in Europe by 25% because of a fall in demand. Dow Chemical too had announced a 15% reduction in polystyrene production in Europe in June.