Investors take a breather

US STOCK investors took a breather yesterday afternoon, pulling back a little to chew over the previous session’s gains and a number of deals and downgrades in telecom and media.

Around 1.25pm ET, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 163.10 to 8,827.69; the Dow was up more than 200 points on Monday.

The Nasdaq composite fell 22.79 to 1,371.75, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index gave back 18.18 to 932.66.