The Dow Loses 158 Points, Nasdaq Falls 54

The Dow lost 158.48 points today to close at 12,121.71, the Nasdaq fell 54.34 points to close at 2,405.92, and the S&P 500 lost 5.14 points to close at 1,400.95. The markets big decline was attributed to profit taking, a weaker dollar - which hit a 20-month low versus the euro, and negative same-store sales data from Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT). Oil gained $1.08 to close at $60.32.

Volume was light with 2.77 billion shares trading on the NYSE and 2.02 billion trading on the Nasdaq. Decliners crushed Advancers by a margin of 27:6 on the NYSE but were even at 25:6 on the Nasdaq.

In individual stories, shares of Conolog Corp. (Nasdaq: CNLG) gained 278% today with no specific news releases, however, the stock has lost over 60% in value over the past 6 months. Scottish Re Group Limited (NYSE: SCT) fell 11.8% after announcing that it has entered into an agreement whereby MassMutual Capital Partners LLC, a member of the MassMutual Financial Group, and affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., will each invest $300 million into the company, resulting in a total new equity investment of $600 million. According to the transaction agreement, the Convertible Preferred Shares may be converted into 150,000,000 ordinary shares of Scottish Re at any time, representing a 68.8% Ordinary Share ownership on a fully diluted basis at the time of investment. Scottish Re's board of directors has unanimously approved the transaction.

Tomorrow, investors will be looking for earnings from American Woodmark (Nasdaq: AMWD), Aropostale (NYSE: ARO), Chico's FAS (NYSE: CHS), Dress Barn (Nasdaq: DBRN), Restoration Hardware (Nasdaq: RSTO) and SkillSoft (Nasdaq: SKIL).

Traders will be looking for economic data on October Existing Home Sales and November Consumer Confidence.

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