A gain in November retail sales lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow climbing 54 points to 11,483. Nasdaq gained 10 points to 2635.
On the upside
Private investment firm H.I.G. Capital will pay $8 per share in cash to acquire Matrixx Initiatives (Nasdaq: MTXX).
BP (NYSE: BP) will sell most of its assets in the Sindh province of Pakistan and the Arabian Sea for approximately $775 million in cash to United Energy Group.
Unconfirmed reports circulated that Genoptix (Nasdaq: GXDX) secured the services of Barclays to seek potential suitors.
On the downside
Capstone Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CAPS) reported that its AZX100 keloid scarring treatment failed to reduce or prevent scarring in a twelve month Phase 2a clinical trial.
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) disappointed with lower third quarter earnings that fell short of analyst expectations prompting the consumer electronics retailer to lower its fiscall 2011 guidance.
International Coal Group (NYSE: ICO) priced its secondary offering of approximately 34.7 million common shares.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 both on the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added a point to 773.
