Mixed Open As Investors Await Bernanke’s Speech
August 27, 2012 at 02:44 AM EDT
The markets opened mixed with the Dow slipping 28 points to 13,129 while Nasdaq added 5 points to 3074 as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech on Friday.On the upsideA federal court’s ruling on Friday that Samsung infringed on Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) patents sparked speculation that Nokia (NYSE: NOK) gain market share from the South Korean smartphone maker. M&T Bank will acquire Hudson City Bancorp (Nasdaq: HCBK) in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $3.7 billion.Hertz (NYSE: HTZ) will pay a premium of approximately $2.3 billion to acquire rival Dollar Thrifty Automotive (NYSE: DTG).On the downsideA Seeking Alpha contributor expects Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PPHM) to drop. The Food and Drug Administration placed a clinical hold on Idenix Pharmaceuticals’ (Nasdaq: IDIX) hepatitis C treatment IDX19368.TheStreet Ratings upgraded Universal Display (Nasdaq: PANL) to a Buy rating but the stock price fell.In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 10 to 9 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks held steady at 809.
