Renewed concerns about the impending fiscal cliff sent the markets tumbling to a lower open with the Dow dropping 71 points to 12,938. Nasdaq slipped 6 points to 2960. On the upside
Shares of Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) continued rising after Bloomberg reported on Friday that the company engaged in discussions with Goldman Sachs for a loan. The Wall Street Journal reported that Knight Capital (NYSE: KCG) may sell its market-making operations. Bernstein Research analyst Carlos Kirjner upgraded Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) to an Outperform rating and raised his price target from $23 to $33. On the downside Qatar Holdings sold warrants in Barclays (NYSE: BCS). Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) from a Buy rating to Neutral. FBR Capital downgraded Chico's FAS (NYSE: CHS) to a Market Perform rating and trimmed its price target to $18 from $20. In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by a margin of 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a point to 805.