On the upside
Ascent Solar Technologies (Nasdaq: ASTI) partnered with Kirloskar Integrated Technologies to build a solar module assembly plant in India.
Shares of insurer Centene (NYSE: CNC), which has a significant Medicaid business, rose after passage of the healthcare reform bill. The bill expands Medicaid.
Brean Murray, Carret defended its bullish view on Seagate Technology (Nasdaq: STX) and maintained its Buy rating on the company.
On the downside
Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) said that the company may enter a couple of joint ventures in the near future.
Sprint (NYSE: S) introduced the Motorola i1 phone, the world's first push-to-talk Android powered smartphone, but the stock price dropped.
Shares of Palm (NYSE: PALM) continued falling after an analyst slashed his price target on the company to $0.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks soared 9 points to 682.
