It seemed as though Wall Street took a bit of a breather at the start of trading today.

A glance at the S&P 500 chart reveals that there’s a potential head-and-shoulders pattern forming – a bearish indicator which could also help explain why Wall Street has kicked off in the red today.

The US trading day opened with some disappointing quarterly results from US engineering firm Fluor, which tumbled 5.5% to $45.35 after lowering its full-year earnings forecast. The company unveiled a third-quarter profit of 89 cents a share today, slightly off Bloomberg’s median forecast of 90 cents a share

An aversion towards most financial stocks weighed on Wall Street as well. MBIA, the world’s largest bond insurer, slumped 16.7% to $4 a share after posting a third-quarter net loss of $727.8 million, or $3.50 a share, predominantly due to a drop in the value of insured credit derivatives. This was substantially deeper than Bloomberg’s estimates for a loss of $1.09 a share.

These results also exerted pressure on rival Ambac, which saw its share price tumble 11% to $1.05. Although banks fared better than bond insurers, appetite for the former was somewhat lacklustre, with Citigroup and Wells Fargo both down by 0.5% to $4.17 and $28.27 respectively.

American International Group was among the few financial stocks that staged a rally, however, jumping 4.3% to $37.74 after reporting better-than-expected third- quarter results.

The insurance company unveiled net income of $455 million, or $0.68 a share, which is substantially better than last year’s net loss of $24.5 billion. AIG explained that its bottom line was helped by fewer write downs, aggressive cost cutting and the disposal of non-core units.

AIG also said it is considering the closure of more branches. It said that it may sell off some of its loan portfolios to bolster its balance sheet and may be able to pay back certain loans.

There have been some other outstanding movers today – the share price of online travel agency Priceline.com surged nearly 17% to $202.9 after announcing quarterly sales and profits that topped consensus expectations. The company also said it anticipates further growth in revenues in the fourth quarter.

Internet advertising giant Google was also in the spotlight after unveiling plans to acquire mobile advertising start-up AdMob Inc for $750 million in stock. The purchase forms part of Google’s plan to increase its dominance in advertising to mobile phones. Google’s share price traded 0.6% higher at $565.96.

House builder Beazer Homes was another star performer, up 9.2% to $5.13 after posting its first quarterly profit in three years. The company earned 87 cents a share in its fiscal fourth quarter, substantially ahead of Bloomberg’s average estimate for a loss of $1.40 a share.

Elsewhere, December Light Sweet crude futures traded 0.5% higher at $79.87 a barrel this afternoon, despite the International Energy Agency saying that a new global deal to limit carbon emissions could sharply dampen the growth in oil consumption in the years ahead.

IEA said that if this deal is reached, global crude demand may grow by only four million barrels a day, substantially lower than current levels of 89 million barrels a day. If this agreement does materialise, it could limit crude oil’s upside and the profitability of certain oil companies.

By 3.30pm (London time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 30.38 points (+0.30%) higher at 10257.32, while the broader S&P 500 was 2.62 points (+0.24%) above its previous close at 1095.70.

By Anthony Grech, Research Analyst, IG Index.

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