The telecommunications sector has been pulled lower today, rounding out today's list as the worst performing sector this afternoon. The drop followed the earnings report of Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), which swung to a second-quarter loss of $344 million, or 12 cents a share. This is versus a gain of $19 million, or a penny a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings in the period fell to 6 cents per share, while revenue fell 11% to $9.1 billion.

Meanwhile, gold has rebounded todayup from yesterday's lowsrecouping some of the heavy losses it has sustained recently. In fact, since July 31, the price of gold has dropped more than $30 on strength in the dollar and weakness in crude oil.