The markets traded flat during the midday with the Dow easing a fraction to 17,514. Nasdaq added a point to 4,656.

On the upside

Bargain hunters lifted shares of Altisource Portfolio Solutions (Nasdaq: ASPS).

Shares of ChinaNet Online Holdings (Nasdaq: CNET) extended its gains.

CapRock Research initiated coverage of Nxt-ID (Nasdaq: NXTD) with a Buy rating and a near term price target of $4.80.

On the downside

Shares of Advaxis (Nasdaq: ADXS) extended its losses.

Oculus Innovative Sciences (Nasdaq: OCLS) priced its public offering of 6.25 million common shares at the discounted price of $1.00 per share.

MFC Industrial (NYSE: MIL) announced that it was unaware of any developments that caused a drop in its stock price but shares of the company continued falling.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 3 to 2 on the NYSE and while decliners edged out advancers by more than 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 rose 5 points to 2028. Bitcoin gained $5 to $215.