Pakistan violence roils stocks

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks fell at the start of trading Thursday after ex-Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.4 percent. The Nasdaq composite index was down 0.3 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index eased 0.3 percent.

Economic reports showed much weaker demand for durable goods than had been forecasts as November orders were up only 0.1 percent, rather than the 2.2 percent jump that had been forecast. Weekly initial jobless claims came in higher than forecasts.

The latest reading on consumer confidence for December will be released at 10 a.m. ET.

In corporate news, Internet search leader Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) suffered a legal setback when a federal appeals court revived a patent infringement claim by HyperPhrase Technologies that had been dismissed earlier in the month.

Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, Fortune 500), the world's largest retailer, announced late Wednesday it is having problems processing gift cards due to what it described as an error in a third-party verifier's systems.

Hollywood had a good weekend ahead of Christmas, with a total box office of $160 million, up 34 percent from a year earlier. The leading movie was "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" from Walt Disney (DIS, Fortune 500), which sold $65.4 million in tickets over the extended five-day holiday.

Student lender Sallie Mae (SLM, Fortune 500) announced plans late Wednesday to sell common and mandatory convertible preferred stock in order to raise $2.5 billion. Shares lost nearly 6 percent in after-hours trading on the news.

The Wall Street Journal reported that News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500) unit Twentieth Century Fox and Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) are preparing to announce a deal in which Fox movies would be available for rent digitally through Apple's iTunes store.