Markets Flat At Midday

The markets traded near the flatline during the midday with the Dow adding a point to 10,898 even as mortgage rates fell. Nasdaq slipped 5 points to 2419.

On the upside

China Direct Industries (Nasdaq: CDII) signed a twelve month contract to supply a trading and refining company with manganese ore.

A new Sprint (NYSE: S) prepaid wireless plan will be offered by Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) prompting Raymond James to upgrade Sprint.

Oppenheimer & Co. upgraded Teradata (NYSE: TDC) to an Outperform rating.

On the downside

Con-way (NYSE: CNW) announced an offering of 4.3 million common shares.

Prestige Brand Holdings (NYSE: PBH) swung to a fourth quarter profit but the results fell short of expectations as expenses climbed.

VanceInfo Technologies (NYSE: VIT) reported higher first quarter earnings but forecast disappointing second quarter revenue.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 10 to 9 on the NYSE and by more than 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks slipped 2 points to 713.