Rise In Homebuilder Confidence Lifts Markets
On the upside
China Precision Steel (Nasdaq: CPSL) swung to a profit for the second quarter as revenue surged.
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) won a second contract from Taiwan's First International Telecom to launch a WiMAX network in northern Taiwan.
US Airways (NYSE: LCC) reported that flights in December were on time 75.2% of the time.
On the downside
Needham downgraded STEC (Nasdaq: STEC) from Strong Buy to Hold.
AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) will pay Rigel Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RIGL) $100 million upfront for the development and marketing rights to the potential rheumatoid arthritis drug fostamatinib disodium with an additional $1.145 billion in potential milestone and sales payments. The deal must first be approved by regulators.
While fourth quarter earnings for Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) surged, revenue fell short of expectations.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks gained 5 points to 616.
