Upbeat Economic Data Lifts Markets At Midday

On the upside

The Food and Drug Administration approved Staar Surgical's (Nasdaq: STAA) injector system for use with implantable lenses to treat cataracts.

KV Pharmaceutical (NYSE: KV-A) agreed that it infringed on Purdue Pharma's OxyContin patent and was granted limited rights to market a generic version of pain medication.

Synovus (NYSE: SNV) declared a quarterly dividend of a penny per share to be paid on July 1, 2009 to shareholders of record June 18, 2009.

On the downside

Wendy's/Arby's Group (NYSE: WEN) will offer $550 million in senior unsecured notes to raise capital to prepay debt.

UBS downgraded Temple-Inland (NYSE: TIN).

Satyam Computer (NYSE: SAY) launched a program to manage staffing expenses while retaining talent.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 5 points to 529.