Flat Close As Fed Minutes Reveal Economy Weaker Than Expected
The markets retreated to close flat after the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes revealed that officials admitted that the economy was weaker than they had expected. The Dow added 4 points to 10,044 while Nasdaq slipped 5 points to 2114.
On the upside
HSBC analyst Yolanda Wang expects Spreadtrum (Nasdaq: SPRD) to pick up Infineon (NYSE: IFX) 2G clients after Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) acquires Infineon's wireless unit.
Rex Energy (Nasdaq: REXX) announced a joint venture agreement to sell part of its interest in the Marcellus Shale to Sumitomo while maintaining operations at the site.
Ousted former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Mark Hurd will leave the boad of directors of News Corp. (NYSE: NWSA) at the end of his term.
On the downside
Origin Agritech (Nasdaq: SEED) reported higher fourth quarter earnings but revenue dropped.
Motley Fool Global Gains recommended China Green Agriculture (NYSE: CGA) and said that company growth is sustainable but the stock price fell.
Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Ferragu lowered his price target for Research In Motion (NYSE: RIMM) and cut his earnings estimate for fiscal 2011 and 2012.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE while decliners barely edged out advancers by a slim margin on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks edged up a fraction to 602.
