U.S. Stocks Fall on Home-Sales Report

Better- than-forecast earnings at Walt Disney Co., the world's biggest theme-park operator, and from Cisco Systems limited the market's slide. Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. mortgage-finance company, dropped before a planned sale of $6 billion in shares.

As of 2:15 p.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 86.14 points, or 0.66 percent to 12,934.69, the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 11.74 points, or 0.83 percent, to 1,406.52 and the Nasdaq Composite Index slid 24.63 points, or 0.99 percent, to 2,458.68.

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire said it will combine their wireless broadband units to build nationwide wireless network to provide high-speed Internet connections for laptops and cell phones. The new company, which will be named Clearwire, received $3.2 billion in investments from several major corporations, including cable operator Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Intel. Sprint will be the company's majority owner, with a 51 percent stake.

Shares of Sprint soared 4 percent but were recently down 0.9 percent while Clearwire gained 3 percent.

Walt Disney reported a 22 increase in quarterly profit and a 9.5 percent increase in revenue. Shares of Disney picked up more than 1 percent and were trading at their highest levels since Nov. 1. Disney's results easily beat the Street and provided some hope that the U.S. consumer is surviving amid rising food and energy costs and scary economic headlines. Boosted in part by a favorable shift in the Easter holiday, Disney's parks and resorts revenue rose 11 percent in the latest period. Shares were up $1.03 or 3.05 percent to $34.77.

Fannie Mae said it plans to raise $6 billion of capital in share sales after the market closes today. The company is marketing about $2 billion each of common and convertible preferred shares. Fannie Mae fell $1.20 to $29.61.