The markets traded modestly higher during the midday with the Dow gaining 11 points to 16,032. Nasdaq rose 5 points to 4068.
On the upside
Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR) will sell its 50% stake in its Alpha Shale Resources Joint Venture to Rice Energy for $300 million in cash and stock.
Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) will allow access to its service through Unstructured Supplementary Service Data technology for Myriad Group users.
Highway Holdings (Nasdaq: HIHO) received three orders to produce plastic components for printers.
On the downside
OSI Systems (Nasdaq: OSI) said that the Transportation Security Administration most likely cancelled a recent order due to an upgraded component in the AT-2 detection systems.
Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) blamed increased competition for forecasting 2014 sales of its Sapien heart valves below analyst expectations.
Profit taking weighed down shares of Metabolix (Nasdaq: MBLX).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 10 to 9 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by more than 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 rose 3 points to 1808. Bitcoin surged $135.49 or 17.32% to $917.99.
