The S&P 500 was down 0.5% in midday trading to 2,060.45.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4% to 17,560.05.
The Nasdaq was down 0.4% to 5,016.34.
The yield on a 10-year Treasury bond was down 1.7% to 2.02%.
The price of gold was flat at $1,166.
REAL ESTATE
Orange County homebuilders were down on a U.S. Commerce Department report that said sales of new homes fell 11.5% in September, compared with August, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 468,000. Economists had expected the rate to be 555,000.
Irvine-based CalAtlantic Group Inc. was down 5% to $39.12 and a $4.8 billion market cap. Irvine-based Tri Pointe Group Inc. was down 3.9% to $13.07 and a $2.1 billion market cap. Newport Beach-based William Lyon Homes was down 6.9% to $21.81 and a $693 million market cap. Aliso Viejo-based New Home Co. Inc. was down 1% to $14.44 and a $240 million market cap.
HEALTHCARE
Irvine-based Endologix Inc. was down 33.5% to $9.13 and a $619 million market cap. The maker of devices to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms reported a loss in its most recent quarter and analysts at BMO Capital downgraded the company’s shares to “market perform.” Endologix separately announced a $211 million acquisition of a competitor.
Newport Beach-based Alliance Healthcare Services Inc. was down 6.5% to $8.30 and an $87 million market cap. Its shares have fallen more than 50%, from $16.93, in mid-September when the operator of diagnostic centers said 51.5% of Alliance would be bought by a China-based company for $18.50 a share.
