Closing Bell Report

It was a mixed close for the markets as growth of personal income and consumer spending slowed.  The Dow lost 8 points to 12,638 while Nasdaq climbed 14 points to 2523.

On the upside

A panel of outside advisors to the Food and Drug Administration recommended the short term use of the blood clottng drug Promacta which was developed by Ligand Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: LGND) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK).  Earlier this week, the FDA said that Promacta was ineffective

Wind River Systems (Nasdaq: WIND) reported higher first quarter earnings that surpassed expectations and forecast fiscal 2009 results ahead of estimates.

Penn Virginia (NYSE: PVA) announced that a natural gas well in East Texas wil be able to produce up to 15 million cubic feet of natural gas each day.

On the downside

Medical Action Industries (Nasdaq: MDCI) blamed manufacturing inefficiencies and increased costs for lower fourth quarter earnings that fell short of estimates.

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY) will not be converting into a real estate investment trust in either 2008 or 2009 due to the downturn in the housing market.

Moneygram International (NYSE: MGI) reported a quarterly loss.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by nearly the same on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 3 points to 748.