Housing Prices Rise Sequentially, Markets Open Mixed

On the upside

AspenBio Pharma (Nasdaq: APPY) reported positive interim results for its AppyScore blood test for acute appendicitis.

Imperial Sugar (Nasdaq: IPSU) paid $345 million to settle an insurance claim from a 2008 explosion at a sugar refinery in Georgia.

Shares of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) continued climbing after the Treasury Department guaranteed unlimited capital to the mortgage giants for the next three years.

On the downside

Arigene will terminate its tender offer for Trimeris' (Nasdaq: TRMS) outstanding shares of common stock because could not secure sufficient financing.

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: SNSS) will sell stocks and warrants to raise approximately $50 million.

Shares of Compugen (Nasdaq: CGEN) fell as investors locked in profits from yesterday's announcement of a cancer drug target discovery.

In the broad market, advancing issues edged out decliners by a margin of 7 to 5 on the NYSE while decliners outpaced advancers by more than 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a fraction to 632.