On the upside
Wedbush Morgan analyst Betsy Van Hees upgraded SanDisk (NYSE: SNDK) after the flash memory card company lifted its first quarter revenue guidance.
Baxter International's (NYSE: BAX) acquisition of ApaTech sparked speculation that Halozyme Therapeutics (Nasdaq: HALO) may be next on Baxter's takeover list.
PHH (NYSE: PHH) swung to a profit for the fourth quarter that beat analyst estimates by a wide margin.
On the downside
Wunderlich downgraded Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) citing lower auto sales.
Collins Stewart analyst Bryan Maher downgraded DiamondRock Hospitality (NYSE: DRH) after the real estate investment trust disappointed with fourth quarter funds from operations that missed expectations.
American Water Works (NYSE: AWK) disappointed with flat fourth quarter earnings.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks leaped 14 points to 642.