Post date: May 24, 2012 12:59:8 AM
Summary of business headlines: HP cutting workforce eight percent; NYSE courting Facebook-Reuters source; Wall St. focused on Greek uncertainty; Dell plunges 17 percent.
USA-USCLOSE - Hewlett Packard announcing plans to lay off 27,000 employees, looking for annualized savings of more than $3 billion. The world's number one computer maker also reported a three percent decline in quarterly revenue.
A source tells Reuters the NYSE is courting Facebook for its stock listing and Facebook is considering it. Separately, an internal memo at Morgan Stanley reveals it is reviewing every Facebook trade and will make price adjustments for customers who paid too much during the company's debut last Friday.
Wall Street was focused on concerns over Greece and its future in the euro zone. Euro zone officials have agreed that each eurozone country must prepare an individual contingency plan in the event that Greece decides to leave the single currency bloc.
Robert Hormats is the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Business:
ROBERT HORMATS, US UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR ECONOMIC BUSINESS
"The Greeks have a chance to go the polls and make a choice. They have a chance to make a choice as to what direction they pursue and Europe has a choice how to react to that."
Also weighing on the markets: Dell. Shares plunged 17 percent erasing more than four billion dollars of its market cap after forecasting disappointing second quarter revenue.
The spring selling season is showing signs of success in the housing market. According to the Commerce Department, new home sales were up 3.3 percent in April. And median home prices were up close to five percent from a year ago.
Taking a look at the closing numbers:
A late afternoon rally took U.S. stocks out of the red with the major indexes closing mostly higher.
But in Europe, stocks closed lower on fears that Greece would have to leave the euro zone.
Bobbi Rebell, Reuters.