The global launch of Apple's iPhone 5 lifted the markets higher during the midday with the Dow rising 27 points to 13,624. Nasdaq gained 14 points to 3194.
On the upside
KB Home (NYSE: KBH) reversed year ago losses to post an unexpected profit for the third quarter.
A secondary offering of Thermon Group (NYSE: THR) stock was increased to 10 million shares and priced at $22 per share.
Standpoint Research downgraded MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS) to a Hold rating but the stock price rose.
On the downside
An outage of Research in Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) Blackberry service occurred for several hours in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
Motley Fool said that Nokia's (NYSE: NOK) turnaround under chief executive Stephen Elop was not effective due to continued declines in revenue and smartphone sales.
KeyCorp downgraded Cooper Tire & Rubber (NYSE: CTB) to a Hold rating.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 7 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks gained 6 points to 858.
Global iPhone 5 Launch Lifts Markets
September 21, 2012 at 14:09 PM EDT
