On the upside
Warburg Pincus will invest $175 million in Nuance Communications (Nasdaq: NUAN) for a 7% stake in the company.Retreating oil prices lifted shares of American Airlines parent AMR (NYSE: AMR), Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL).
Shares of Corinthian Colleges (NYSE: COCO) climbed over reports that the proposed House stimulus bill will increase student loans.
On the downside
Redwood Trust (NYSE: RWT) provided a preliminary fourth quarter book value that fell from the previous quarter and warned of an impairment charge of approximately $110 million.Shares of regional bank Fifth Third Bancorp (NYSE: FITB) plunged over concerns of increasing loan defaults.
Reports circulated that Yahoo's (Nasdaq: YHOO) newly appointed chief executive Carol Bartz has reservations about a deal with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT).
In the broad market, advancing issues barely outpaced decliners by a slim margin on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks surged 9 points to 463.
