Pending Home Sales Rise To Lift Markets Higher
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.
