Rise In Homebuilder Confidence Lifts Markets

An index of homebuilder confidence rose in February to lift the markets higher during the midday with the Dow soaring 124 points to 10,224. Nasdaq climbed 22 points to 2205.

On the upside

China Precision Steel (Nasdaq: CPSL) swung to a profit for the second quarter as revenue surged.

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) won a second contract from Taiwan's First International Telecom to launch a WiMAX network in northern Taiwan.

US Airways (NYSE: LCC) reported that flights in December were on time 75.2% of the time.

On the downside

Needham downgraded STEC (Nasdaq: STEC) from Strong Buy to Hold.

AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) will pay Rigel Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RIGL) $100 million upfront for the development and marketing rights to the potential rheumatoid arthritis drug fostamatinib disodium with an additional $1.145 billion in potential milestone and sales payments. The deal must first be approved by regulators.

While fourth quarter earnings for Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) surged, revenue fell short of expectations.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks gained 5 points to 616.

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