Rising gasoline prices lifted September retail sales a greater than expected 1.1%. The markets opened flat with the Dow edging up a point to 13,330 while Nasdaq lost 6 points to 3037.
On the upside
Citigroup (NYSE: C) reported third quarter earnings and revenue that topped analyst expectations.
Shares of Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) surged on news that Softbank will pay approximately $20.1 billion to take a 70% stake in Sprint (NYSE: S).
Oppenheimer upgraded New Oriental Education (NYSE: EDU) to an Outperform rating.
On the downside
The Food and Drug Administration accepted Delcath Systems' (Nasdaq: DCTH) liver cancer treatment for standard review but the stock price tumbled.
Dividend Channel named ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE: ARR) to its list of Top 10 Real Estate Investment Trust but the stock price fell.
Gannett (NYSE: GCI) reported higher third quarter earnings and revenue that surpassed analyst expectations but the stock price slipped.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by nearly 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks slipped 2 points to 820.
Flat Open As Retail Sales Rise
October 15, 2012 at 10:45 AM EDT
