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Stocks Close Lower; Texas Instruments Breaks Out; 4 Key Companies To Post Earnings

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The stock market closed modestly lower Monday, a day that saw a few breakouts by big caps Home Depot (HD), Texas Instruments (TXN) and Adobe (ADBE).

Indexes finished well off their session lows, but not enough to quench all losses. The Nasdaq fell a fraction, the Dow Jones industrial average 0.1% and the S&P 500 0.3%. The Dow transportation average slid 0.9%.

Volume was lower across the board, early numbers showed.

Sparse few stocks were up in unusual volume, while many saw busy trading on the downside.

The stock down with most volume was Qualcomm (QCOM), which plunged 13%, touching the lowest level since July. The sell-off followed news that Apple (AAPL) sued Qualcomm over a licensing dispute. On Monday, Nomura Instinet piled on by downgrading Qualcomm to neutral from buy.

Aetna (AET) tumbled 3% after a federal judge blocked its planned acquisition of Humana (HUM). Shares of Humana rose 2%.

Adobe climbed past the 111.19 buy point of a base-on-base pattern. But the stock closed below that entry, with a minor gain. Volume was below average and the relative strength line is lagging — two dampers on the otherwise bullish move.

Home Depot closed 2% higher, as the home improvement chain broke out past a 137.42 buy point in volume 30% above average.

Texas Instruments climbed above the 75.35 buy point of a flat base. It closed in buy range. Volume was about 15% above normal — not particularly a rush of institutional buying. The company reports earnings after the close Tuesday.

Some major companies are reporting earnings Tuesday, including Alibaba (BABA), Hawaiian Holdings (HA), Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Steel Dynamics (STLD). All four have been in IBD screens or have been in the investor spotlight.

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