The markets traded mixed during the midday with the Dow falling 49 points to 11,358 after Moody's downgraded the debt rating of Bank of America. Nasdaq gained 7 points to 2597.
On the upside
The Paragon Report issued an equity research report on Human Genome Sciences (Nasdaq: HGSI), whose lupus treatment Benlysta was approved for marketing in the US, Europe and Canada.
Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ) board of directors will discuss the possibility of replacing chief executive Leo Apotheker with board member and former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman.
Speculation that Range Resources (NYSE: RRC) may be acquired lifted shares of the natural gas company.
On the downside
NuVasive (Nasdaq: NUVA) must pay $101.2 million to Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) for patent infringement.
Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR) cut its 2011 coal production outlook due to lower demand.
comScore reported that AOL (NYSE: AOL) was fifth on its list of most visited websites in August behind leaders Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Facebook.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 7 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 3 points to 686.