The markets traded mixed during the midday with the Dow adding 4 points to 12,384 while Nasdaq fell 12 points to 2768. Oil prices retreated but the International Monetary Fund lowered its outlook for economic growth in the United States to 2.8% from 3%.
On the upside
Two Seeking Alpha contributors wrote that increased demand for rare earth metals will benefit Molycorp (NYSE: MCP).
Flower Foods (NYSE: FLO) will acquire Tasty Baking (Nasdaq: TSTY) in an all cash deal valued at approximately $34.4 million.
Electronics For Imaging (Nasdaq: EFII) announced preliminary first quarter results that surpassed analyst expectations by a wide margin.
On the downside
An arbitration panel ordered ADA-ES (Nasdaq: ADES) to pay Norit Americas $37.9 million in damages for breaching a Market Development Agreement.
Opnext (Nasdaq: OPXT) warned on Friday that fourth quarter revenue will be lower than expected.
Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair expects Blackberry maker Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) to abandon Marvel's (Nasdaq: MRVL) processor chips in favor of Qualcomm's (Nasdaq: QCOM) processors.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 5 points to 835.
