Milder Contraction Of Services Sector Boosts Markets

While the services sector contracted again in February, the Institute for Supply Management's services index fell less than expected to boost the markets higher during the midday. The Dow leaped 153 points to 6879 while Nasdaq jumped 34 points to 1355.

On the upside

ADC Telecommunications (Nasdaq: ADCT) swung to a loss for the first quarter but results topped analyst estimates and revenue rose.

NASA partnered with Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) to develop a monitoring platform to record and analyze climate change.

First quarter earnings rose to beat expectations for Joy Global (NYSE: JOYG) as original equipment sales climbed and margins improved.

On the downside

Bloomberg News reported that Hartford Financial Services (NYSE: HIG) engaged in discussions to sell its life insurance business to Sun Life Financial.

Fitch Ratings cited the slump in Las Vegas locals market for downgrading Boyd Gaming's (NYSE: BYD) issuer default rating, senior credit agreement and senior subordinated debt.

U. S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) slashed its quarterly dividend from 42.5 cents per share to 5 cents per share in order to save over $2.6 billion annually.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 8 points to 369.