Surging New Home Sales Lift Markets To Higher Open

A surge in new home sales lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow rising 38 points to 11,172. Nasdaq added 3 points to 2522.

On the upside

LM Ericsson Telephone (Nasdaq: ERIC) reported lower first quarter earnings but profit margins improved.

Reuters reported that HTC will not acquire Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) leaving Lenovo Group the lead contender.

Xerox (NYSE: XRX) reported a first quarter loss due to restructuring charges but the results topped analyst expectations and the company forecast second quarter earnings ahead of estimates.

On the downside

Analysts downgraded Associated Banc-Corp (Nasdaq: ASBC) after the company reported a wider than expected loss.

Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR) swung to a profit but the results fell short of expectations.

The Food and Drug Administration rejected Acura Pharmaceuticals' (Nasdaq: ACUR) experimental pain medication Acurox.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by more than 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 2 points to 736.