Home Depot Boosts Market to a Higher Open
Stocks open higher after the nation's largest home improvement retailer raised earnings expectations. Meanwhile, oil prices rose to their highest levels of the year topping the $70 a barrel mark. The Dow rose 35 points to 8798. Nasdaq climbed 11 points to 1872.
On the upside
Home Depot (NYSE: HD) raised its full-year earnings outlook aiming to maintain its profit margin despite slowing sales.
Citigroup (NYSE: C) announced a series of public exchange offers that would swap up to $58 billion in preferred stock held by the U.S. government in exchange for an equity stake of up to 34% in the troubled bank. Citigroup's market capitalization is currently less than $20 billion.
The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) hired Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) to explore the possible sale of The Boston Globe.
Isle of Capri Casinos (Nasdaq: ISLE) posted flat revenues and a profit that beat expectations.
On the downside
Drug developer MDRNA (Nasdaq: MRNA) announced a stock offering of $10.5 million at $2 a share.
Chinese Internet portal Sina Corp. (Nasdaq: SINA) posted higher revenues and lower earnings that missed expectations due to a slowdown in ad sales in China.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 5 on the NYSE while decliners barely edged out advancers by a slim margin on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added a point to 533.
