The markets retreated to close flat after the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes revealed that officials admitted that the economy was weaker than they had expected. The Dow added 4 points to 10,044 while Nasdaq slipped 5 points to 2114.
On the upside
HSBC analyst Yolanda Wang expects Spreadtrum (Nasdaq: SPRD) to pick up Infineon (NYSE: IFX) 2G clients after Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) acquires Infineon's wireless unit.
Rex Energy (Nasdaq: REXX) announced a joint venture agreement to sell part of its interest in the Marcellus Shale to Sumitomo while maintaining operations at the site.
Ousted former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Mark Hurd will leave the boad of directors of News Corp. (NYSE: NWSA) at the end of his term.
On the downside
Origin Agritech (Nasdaq: SEED) reported higher fourth quarter earnings but revenue dropped.
Motley Fool Global Gains recommended China Green Agriculture (NYSE: CGA) and said that company growth is sustainable but the stock price fell.
Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Ferragu lowered his price target for Research In Motion (NYSE: RIMM) and cut his earnings estimate for fiscal 2011 and 2012.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE while decliners barely edged out advancers by a slim margin on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks edged up a fraction to 602.
