Fed Preparing To Act, Markets Close Higher

The Federal Reserve meeting minutes indicated that the Fed was finalizing plans to jumpstart the stalled economic recovery. The markets closed higher with the Dow rising 10 points to 11,020. Nasdaq gained 15 points to 2417.

On the upside

Motricity (Nasdaq: MOTR) introduced its new end-to-end Mobile as a Service solution combining its mCore product suite, cloud-based infrastructure and professional and managed services offerings.

JP Morgan Chase analyst Christopher Horvers said that OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX) was a good acquisition candidate.

Netlist (Nasdaq: NLST) received a patent for its "circuit with flexible portion."

On the downside

Duoyuan Global Water (NYSE: DGW) signed an agreement for the exclusive rights to sell EnviroMix's core mixing technology in China but the stock price fell.

Disappointing reviews of the latest version of the Medal of Honor franchise, which went on sale today, weighed down shares of Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS).

Ciena (Nasdaq: CIEN) will offer $175 million in convertible senior notes. 

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 9 to 7 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 5 on Nasdaq.