Unexpected Gain In Jobless Claims Weigh Down Markets
On the upside
United Airlines parent UAL (Nasdaq: UAUA) and US Airways (NYSE: LCC) engaged in merger discussions.
March same store sales for Gap (NYSE: GPS) surged 11% to beat analyst expectations by a wide margin.
Hot Topic (Nasdaq: HOTT) reported lower same store sales for March but the results were better than expected and the teen retailer announced a one-time cash dividend of $1 per share along with a regular dividend of 7 cents per share payable on May 3, 2010 to shareholders of record April 19, 2010.
On the downside
Compellent Technologies (NYSE: CML) lowered its revenue outlook for the first quarter to fall below analyst estimates prompting downgrades.
A Food and Drug Administratin advisory panel rejected Forest Laboratories' (NYSE: FRX) lung disease treatment Daxas citing the possibility of dangerous side effects.
Robert W. Baird downgraded KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY).
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 3 points to 696.
