The nation's service sector expanded in August to lift the markets higher during the midday with the Dow adding 3 points to 10,812. Nasdaq gained 15 points to 2420.
On the upside
Acquisition rumors lifted shares of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM).
A Wall Street Journal report that the Environmental Protection Agency may allow more pollutants from power plants lifted shares of Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR), James River Coal (Nasdaq: JRCC) and Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX).
Star Scientific (Nasdaq: CIGX) announced the publication of a peer-reviewed article demonstrating that anatabine lowers levels of A-beta in mice.
On the downside
Rising loan delinquencies weighed down shares of Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq: FITB).
Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) will begin offering satellite radio in 2012 Subarus but the stock price dropped.
Disappointment with Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) latest iPhone weighed down shares of the company.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added a point to 649.
