Upbeat Economic Data Lift Markets To Higher Close
On the upside
Lihir Gold (Nasdaq: LIHR) rejected Newcrest Mining's $8.5 billion acquisition offer saying that the bid was too low.
Century Aluminum (Nasdaq: CENX) temporarily extended a union contract at its Kentucky smelting plant while contract negotiations continue.
Flotek Industries (NYSE: FTK) narrowed fourth quarter losses even as revenue dropped.
On the downside
Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) reversed year ago losses to post a better than expected profit for the second quarter but the stock price fell.
An appeals court upheld a ruling in favor of eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) in Tiffany & Co.'s (NYSE: TIF) trademark infringement lawsuit but returned a false advertising claim decision to the lower courts for review.
Fourth quarter earnings for Telestone Technologies (Nasdaq: TSTC) surged as revenue more than doubled but the stock price fell.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 5 points to 683.
