Upbeat earnings lifted the markets to a high open with the Dow rising 27 points to 15,487. Nasdaq gained 7 points to 3585.
On the upside
Spreadtrum Communications (Nasdaq: SPRD) will be acquired by Tsinghua Holdings in a deal valued at approximately $1.78 billion.
Athenahealth (Nasdaq: ATHN) will provide cloud services to Ascension Health Alliance's Clinical Holdings.
WebMD Health (Nasdaq: WBMD) reported higher preliminary second quarter revenue and lifted its full year guidance.
On the downside
Raymond James downgraded Ceres (Nasdaq: CERE) from an Outperform rating to a Market Perform rating.
UPS (NYSE: UPS) reported preliminary second quarter results that missed analyst expectations and cut its full year earnings outlook.
Oppenheimer downgraded SodaStream International (Nasdaq: SODA) from an Outperform rating to a Perform rating.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index added a point to 1676.
