U.S. shares began the holiday-shortened week with losses today, but the decline was more subdued than pre-market losses has suggested in the wake of the unraveling crisis in Greece. The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) skidded 1.1 percent to 2,077.79 at 11:57 a.m. in New York. The 30-company Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) slipped 1.1 percent to 17,745.09, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) fell 1.3 percent to 5,103.74. Most followed shares included GE, Novartis, National Bank of Greece, JPMorgan Chase, Alcatel-Lucent, Macy’s, Gannett, Twitter, Amazon.com, and eBay.
Novartis (NYSE:NVS) dropped 0.3 percent to $99.58. The drug maker is buying biotech firm Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, which specializes in pain management, for $200 million, with the possibility of further payments in the future. Spinifex is currently owned by venture capital firms in the U.S. and Australia.
In technology shares, Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) gave up 3.4 percent to $3.68. Hedge fund Elliott Management took a 1.3 percent stake in the telecom equipment maker, leading to speculation that it will push for improved terms for its deal to be bought by Nokia.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) retreated 1.4 percent to $34.77. Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy Rishi Garg resigned to pursue other interests, according to Re/code. He joined Twitter in May 2014.
eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) sank 2 percent to $59.83. The world's largest Internet auctioneer approved the previously announced separation of the company's PayPal operation into an independent publicly traded company.
In financial shares, General Electric (NYSE:GE) was down 1.1 percent at $26.79 after it announced it will sell its U.S., Mexico, Australia and New Zealand fleet businesses for $6.9 billion, with a separate smaller deal in the works to unload its business in Europe.
ADRs of National Bank of Greece (NYSE:NBG) slumped 21 percent to $1.00. These and other Greece-related stocks are under pressure this morning, following the failure of Greek debt talks over the weekend.
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) declined 1.8 percent to $67.73. Oppenheimer downgraded the bank to "perform" from "outperform" on the idea that valuations may be outrunning fundamentals given the lack of earnings drivers.
In consumer shares, Macy's (NYSE:M) retreated 2.3 percent to $68.23. The second-largest U.S. department-store was downgraded to "sell" from "buy" at Deutsche Bank, reflecting the firm's "low confidence" that Macy's can break out of a "same-store sales rut."
Gannett (NYSE:GCI) tumbled 62 percent to $14.20. The company splits in two, effective today. The existing parent company is renamed Tegna and will own 46 broadcast stations as well as the Cars.com and Careerbuilder.com websites. The newspaper operation, including USA Today, are spun out into a new company which will carry the Gannett name and ticker symbol.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) fell 0.7 percent to $435.00. Amazon is expanding its small business loan program to eight more countries later this year, including China. Right now the service is only available in the United States and Japan.