Pending Home Sales Rise To Lift Markets Higher

An increase in pending home sales lifted the markets higher during the midday with the Dow gaining 78 points to 7687. Nasdaq rose 12 points to 1541.

On the upside

American Capital (Nasdaq: ACAS) created its new Core Financial Group by combining its Core Business Credit, Velocity Financial Group and Oceana Media Finance businesses.

Solutia (NYSE: SOA) will sell its nylon business for $50 million in cash to an affiliate of SK Capital Partners.

JPMorgan upgraded Ashland (NYSE: ASH) due to improved margins.

On the downside


Robert W. Baird downgraded Apollo Group (Nasdaq: APOL) despite better than expected earnings as the for-profit educator warned of additional bad debt expenses.

FTN Equity Capital downgraded Auxilium (Nasdaq: AUXL).

Sonic Automotive (NYSE: SAH) blamed the auto industry slump for swinging to a significant fourth quarter loss.


In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 2 points to 424.

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