Economic Indicators Rise Less Than Expected, Mixed Open

February 18, 2010 at 08:46 AM EST

The Conference Board reported that its index of leading economic indicators rose in January, but the gain was smaller than expected. The markets opened mixed with the Dow adding 12 points to 10,321 while Nasdaq eased a point to 2224.

On the upside

Fairfax Financial will pay $38 per share in cash to acquire Zenith National Insurance (NYSE: ZNT), a 31.4% premium over yesterday's closing price.

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) narrowed fourth quarter losses.

Fourth quarter earnings for ABB (NYSE: ABB) more than doubled to beat expectations.

On the downside

The Food and Drug Administration sent XenoPort (Nasdaq: XNPT) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) a Complete Response letter with more questions about their restless leg syndrome treatment Horizant.

Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) reversed year ago losses to post a profit for the fourth quarter but the stock price fell as revenue failed to meet overly optimistic expectations.

Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) narrowed fourth quarter losses but investors were disappointed that results failed to top estimates.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 9 to 7 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by nearly 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a fraction to 624.