Home Sales Rise To Lift Markets To Higher Open

The markets surged in early morning trading with the Dow soaring 135 points to 9486 as existing home sales rose by the fastest pace in nearly two years. Nasdaq jumped 26 points to 2015.

On the upside

Sinclair Broadcast Group (Nasdaq: SBGI) reached a tentative agreement with debt holders to pay down $438 million in senior convertible notes.

Although Mentor Graphics (Nasdaq: MENT) widened second quarter losses, the results topped estimates and the electronics testing software maker forecast third quarter results ahead of expectations.

Second quarter earnings for Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) more than doubled as revenue climbed.

On the downside

Verigy (Nasdaq: VRGY) disappointed by swinging to a loss for the third quarter as revenue tumbled.

Second quarter earnings for Hibbett Sports (Nasdaq: HIBB) plunged to fall short of expectations.

Foot Locker (NYSE: FL) blamed lower revenue for reporting break even results for the second quarter that missed estimates.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks leaped 11 points to 580.