Upbeat Earnings Lift Markets To Higher Close

On the upside

A Delaware court ruled in favor of Par Pharmaceuctical (NYSE: PRX) in a patent case.

Wabash National (NYSE: WNC) announced that Mark J. Weber will replace Robert J. Smith as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer effective August 31.  Smith accepted a position with privately held PPC.

KapStone Paper and Packaging (Nasdaq: KPPC) will raise approximately $85.2 million through the exercise of 17 million warrants.

On the downside

Solarfun Power Holdings (Nasdaq: SOLF) blamed falling sales for swinging to a loss for the second quarter.

Emcore (Nasdaq: EMKR) widened third quarter losses due to a significant impairment charge.

The Federal Reserve issued an order to First National Bank of Georgia parent WGNB (Nasdaq: WGNB) to halt dividend payments and to submit a plan detailing efforts of the company to meet capital guidelines.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks gained 8 points to 556.