Stocks lost ground for the second day in a row, as investors braced for Corporate America to start reporting quarterly results. According to S&P Capital IQ, fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 3.3% from the fourth quarter of 2011. Tech stocks retreated along with the broader market with Dell falling 2.6% following the departure of the PC maker’s head of mergers and acquisitions. Google lost 0.20% after the co. announced it would begin offering free Wi-Fi in the southwest Chelsea neighborhood of New York. Apple managed to rise 0.27% a day after the company said its App Store has topped more than 40 billion downloads, with almost half of those coming in 2012. Alcoa gained 0.9% in heavy volume as the company projected growth of 7% in global demand for aluminum this year and posted better-than-expected earnings.
