Rising gasoline prices lifted wholesale prices in February 0.4% but core prices edged up a mere 0.2%. The markets opened flat with the Dow adding 7 points to 13,202 while Nasdaq rose 9 points to 3049.
On the upside
Germany's Federal Joint Committee granted InterMune's (Nasdaq: ITMN) lung scarring treatment Esbriet additional benefit status.
Jefferies analyst Mark Lipacis upgraded Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) to a Buy rating and increased his price target from $7 to $10.50.
Shares of Endocyte (Nasdaq: ECYT) continued climbing after announcing plans yesterday to resume late stage clinical trials of its ovarian cancer treatment EC145.
On the downside
Guess (NYSE: GES) reported lower fourth quarter earnings and forecast current quarter and 2012 results below analyst expectations.
Fourth quarter earnings climbed to beat expectations for Vera Bradley (Nasdaq: VRA) but the accessories retailer forecast first quarter results that fell short of estimates.
Yongye International (Nasdaq: YONG) disappointed by falling to a loss for the fourth quarter even as revenue surged.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 9 to 7 on the NYSE and by nearly 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks held steady at 823.