The markets opened mixed with the Dow dropping 79 points to 12,595 as pending home sales fell. Apple's impressive earnings lifted Nasdaq 4 points to 2791.
On the upside
Roche announced a $5.7 billion hostile bid for Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN).
First quarter earnings more than doubled for Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) to beat analyst expectations by a wide margin on strong iPhone sales and forecast current quarter results ahead of estimates.
Textron (NYSE: TXT) swung to a loss for the fourth quart but the results were better than expected and the company forecast 2012 results above analyst expectations.
On the downside
Corning (NYSE: GLW) disappointed with sharply lower fourth quarter earnings and warned that the company will lower glass prices this quarter.
Fourth quarter earnings for WellPoint (NYSE: WLP) tumbled to fall short of analyst expectations as expenses climbed.
LM Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC) reported sharply lower fourth quarter earnings as gross margin fell.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks slipped 2 points to 786.
