While sales of previously owned homes climbed to a five year high in 2012, December sales fell. The markets traded mixed during the midday with the Dow adding 4 points to 13,654 while Nasdaq slipped 10 points to 3124. On the upside
Celsion (Nasdaq: CLSN) announced a technology development agreement with Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical for the cancer treatment ThermoDox. HSBC Securities upgraded SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) to an Overweight rating. Spirit Realty Capital (NYSE: SRC) will merge with Cole Credit Property Trust II. On the downside United Microelectronics (NYSE: UMC) and Faraday Technology produced customer system-on-chip ICs with a density of over 300 million gates but the stock price fell.General Motors (NYSE: GM) cited plunging auto sales in Europe for possibly closing a German manufacturing facility in 2014. Citigroup (NYSE: C) priced its bond offering of 500 million euros. In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 10 to 9 on the NYSE while decliners barely edged out advancers by a slim margin on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index eased a point to 1484.