The markets opened lower on disappointing results from chip giant Intel while investors continued to worry about the battered financial services sector. The Dow lost 44 points to 12,456 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 36 points to 2380.

On the upside

BEA Systems (Nasdaq: BEAS) received a $7.85 billion offer from Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) ending a 3-month tussle to buy the middleware software provider.

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) announced a smaller profit along with a $1.3 billion writedown of subprime-related securities, a smaller amount than those posted by its banking peers.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) posted higher revenues and a decline in earnings while writing down a smaller-than-expected $1.4 billion in home equity losses.

On the downside

Shares of Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) tumbled on heavy volume after the chip maker reported disappointing 4th quarter results and warned of continued softness through 2008.

Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) fell along with the rest of the tech sector. Analysts and Investors were mostly lukewarm with the line-up of new products announced at the company's trade show yesterday.

California Pizza Kitchen (Nasdaq: CPKI) lowered its 4th quarter and full-year guidance due to slowing same-store sales as consumers cut back on discretionary spending.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by 4 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 3 points to 693.