Closing Bell: Late day recovery fizzles as we enter earnings season

Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) were both victims of a research note calling the companies as close to needing $75 billion in new capital. Fannie shares were down 16% at $15.68 and Freddie shares were down 18% at $11.82 in today's final minutes. The weakness over at the GSE's fell over into mortgage REIT play Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY), whose shares were off their lows in today's final minutes with a drop of nearly 7% to $14.51.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) fell sharply among broadening concerns on drug and biotech stocks. Shares were down some 4.3% at $26.80 in today's final minutes after UBS brought up concerns over its Gardisil vaccine sales.

Shares of Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) were up over 2% at $33.45 in today's final minutes ahead of tomorrow's earnings. We caution against the notion that Alcoa defines earnings season bias.

Just in case you aren't getting tired of the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) merger saga, shares were up 12.4% at $24.00 by today's final minutes on very active shares traded of over 75 million. It appears that Steve Ballmer may be interested in dealing with Carl Icahn if he can manage to get rid of that Yahoo! board of directors. Honestly, if this was a horse race we would be plotting against all the horses and jockeys by now.