The markets opened mixed with the Dow adding 7 points to 15,342 while Nasdaq slipped 6 points to 3490 ahead of Apple chief executive Tim Cook's testimony before the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
On the upside
Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) expects photovoltaic module shipments to slip 6%-7% sequentially in the first quarter, an improvement over its previous expectation for a low to mid teen percent decrease.
RBC Capital Markets lifted its price target on JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO) from $1 to $8.
Genesys will pay a premium of $5 per share in cash to acquire SoundBite Communications (Nasdaq: SDBT).
On the downside
Profit taking sank shares of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PPHM).
National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG) stock continued falling after announcing plans to sell 2.27 billion shares at $5.50 per share after a 1 for 10 reverse stock split.
Carnival (NYSE: CCL) lowered its full year earnings outlook prompting downgrades.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index eased a fraction to 1665.
