Markets Flat As GDP Slips
January 30, 2013 at 04:23 AM EST
The markets traded flat during the midday with the Dow slipping 11 points to 13,942 as a sharp drop in defense spending weighed down the nation’s economy last quarter. Nasdaq added 2 points to 3155. On the upsideThe Food and Drug Administration approved Isis Pharmaceuticals’ (Nasdaq: ISIS) new drug application for its cholesterol treatment Kynamro.Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) widened fourth quarter losses but the results were better than expected.Kinder Morgan Energy will pay approximately $3.2 billion in stock to acquire Copano Energy (Nasdaq: CPNO).On the downsideResearch in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) introduced two new BlackBerry 10 phones and changed the company name to BlackBerry. Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) registered domain names that include the name Bill Ackman in the continuing clash between the hedge fund manager and nutritional supplement company.Spansion (NYSE: CODE) reversed year ago losses to post a profit for the fourth quarter but the results fell short of expectations and warned of losses for the current quarter.In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index eased a point to 1505.
