Modestly Higher Open Over Slight Increase In Consumer Prices

On the upside

A Food and Drug administration advisory panel recommended approval for Savient Pharmaceuticals' (Nasdaq: SVNT) gout treatment prompting an upgrade.

Antigenics (Nasdaq: AGEN) will begin a Phase 3 clinical trial of its malaria vaccine RTS,S, which is the most advanced malaria vaccine in development.

Alvarion (Nasdaq: ALVR) secured a five year $100 million contract to provide wireless broadband network service to Open Range Communications.

On the downside

A jury ruled that two patents owned by Star Scientific (Nasdaq: STSI) were not infringed upon by RJ Reynolds (NYSE: RAI).

Standard & Poor's cut its ratings on KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY).

FedEx (NYSE: FDX) widened fourth quarter losses as revenue fell and warned that the global economic crises will continue to negatively impact results.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 4 points to 499.