Merger and acquisition activity lifted the markets higher during the midday with the Dow gaining 46 points to 11,456. Nasdaq edged up a fraction to 2637.
On the upside
Magic Software Enterprises (Nasdaq: MGIC) will expand its presence in South Africa through the acquisition of South African distributor Magix Integration.
Rare earth oxide producer Molycorp (NYSE: MCP) secured the final permits it needed to begin construction of a state of the art rare earth manufacturing plant in Mountain Pass, California.
Forest Oil (NYSE: FST) subsidiary Lone Pine Resources will take over management of Forest Oil's Canadian unit Canadian Forest Oil.
On the downside
Cytokinetics (Nasdaq: CYTK) reported positive results from a midstage clinical trial of its Lou Gehrig's disease drug candidate CK-2017357 but the stock price fell.
Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR) will not seek partners to develop its cancer treatment NKTR-102. Analysts questioned the financial risk involved.
RBC Capital Markets downgraded Western Refining (NYSE: WNR) to an Underperform rating.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 7 to 5 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by nearly 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks edged up a fraction to 777.
