Modestly Higher Close With Only Two More Trading Days In 2010

The markets closed modestly higher with the Dow adding 9 points to 11,585 with only two more trading days in 2010. Nasdaq rose 4 points to 2666.

On the upside

Bel Fuse will nominate three candidates for Pulse Electronics' (NYSE: PULS) Board of Directors as a first step in reopening discussions for a possible merger between the two electronics components rivals.

TheStreet's Rev Shark recommended trading smaller stocks such as Flotek Industries (NYSE: FTK).

Shares of optical networking company Opnext (Nasdaq: OPXT) climbed as streaming services expanded.

On the downside

General Steel Holdings (NYSE: GSI) replaced its auditor Frazer Frost LLP with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Advocacy groups insisted that Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) provide the Federal Communications Commission with its programming contracts to review before the agency votes on Comcast's merger with NBC Universal.

Calyon Securities analyst Mike Mayo lowered his fourth quarter earnings outlook on Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS).

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks edged up a fraction to 790.