On the upside
Fourth quarter earnings for Sapient (Nasdaq: SAPE) more than doubled to beat expectations.
RAIT Financial Trust (NYSE: RAS) reversed year ago losses to post a profit for the fourth quarter.
The creation of a Wholesale Applications Community by wireless carriers offering apps for smartphones lifted shares of Sprint (NYSE: S).
On the downside
Capstone Turbine (Nasdaq: CPST) priced its offering of 38.1 million common shares at $1.05 per share.
The Food and Drug Administration staff questioned the safety of Salix Pharmaceuticals' (Nasdaq: SLXP) Xifaxan as a liver disorder treatment.
Licensing discussions for ARYx Therapeutics' (Nasdaq: ARYX) oral antiarrythmic drug budiodarone collapsed forcing the biopharmaceutical to reduce its workforce and explore strategic options.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by more than 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 2 points to 631.