The markets turned negative in midday trading with the Dow losing 42 points to 12,611 as consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in December. Nasdaq eased a fraction to 2811.

On the upside

The Food and Drug Administration approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals' (Nasdaq: VRTX) cystic fibrosis treatment Kalydeco.

Shares of electronic payment solutions firm VeriFone Systems (NYSE: PAY) climbed on news that MasterCard (NYSE: MA) would introduce new credit cards with EMV technology.

ICICI Bank (NYSE: IBN) reported sharply higher third quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations.

On the downside

Fourth quarter earnings for Gentex (Nasdaq: GNTX) rose but the results fell short of analyst expectations.

DA Davidson downgraded Polypore International (NYSE: PPO) to an Underperform rating.

Tellab (Nasdaq: TLAB) narrowed fourth quarter losses but the communications equipment maker announced the elimination of 530 jobs.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 10 to 9 on the NYSE while decliners were on par with advancers on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a fraction to 791.