Trade Deficit Narrows, Markets Close Higher
A narrowing of the nation's trade deficit in December lifted the markets to a higher close with the Dow climbing 83 points to 11,755. Nasdaq gained 20 points to 2737.
On the upside
Active Power (Nasdaq: ACPW) will provide power conditioning and protection for the 2011 Nordic World Ski Championships with its PowerHouse solution system.
Affymetrix (Nasdaq: AFFX) announced that it will post a fourth quarter profit and that it signed a distribution agreement across the United States and Canada with Thermo Fisher Scientific for its GeneAtlas system.
Fourth quarter earnings slipped for H. B. Fuller (NYSE: FUL) but the results topped analyst estimates.
On the downside
Wedbush Morgan downgraded Thoratec (Nasdaq: THOR).
The Food and Drug Administration delayed ruling on KV Pharmaceutical's (NYSE: KV-A) preterm birth treatment Gestiva and instead requested additional data.
Although Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) appealed Macau's rejection of its application to develop land sites 7 and 8 along the Cotai strip, chief executive Sheldon Adelson said that he was not interested in investing in those two sites.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 6 points to 801.
