Stocks lost steam and finished at two-week lows as worries about global economic growth overshadowed positive reports on the U.S. housing market and consumer confidence. The move downward also came after Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia president Charles Plosser said the central bank's latest round of stimulus measures is unlikely to help growth. U.S. consumer confidence jumped to 70.3, a seven-month high. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. home prices climbed 0.2% in July. Separately, the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite index had home prices rising for a fourth straight month. Advanced Micro Devices fell more than 5.2% after FBR Capital Markets cut its price target on the stock from $7.50 a share to $6, and also lowered revenue and earnings targets for the co. Apple fell 2.5% after an IHS iSuppli analysis of the components in the iPhone 5 estimated the bill of materials and manufacturing costs for the 16-gigabyte iPhone 5 at $207, with the 32GB model costing $209 and the 64GB device costing $230 to produce. Research In Motion managed to buck the losing trend and rise by 4.7% CEO Thorsten Heins told that the co. has added about 2 million subscribers over the last quarter, giving it about 80 million total subscribers. In the evening trade Yahoo rose 1%, cutting in half their losses over the daytime session as details about CEO Marissa Mayer’s turnaround plan for the Web portal began to emerge.
