Higher Close Over Upbeat Earnings
The markets closed higher with the Dow climbing 73 points to 12,391 as investors embraced upbeat earnings news. Nasdaq added 2 points to 2833.
On the upside
Gartner (NYSE: IT) priced a secondary offering of 8 million common shares at $35.50 per share.
US Gold (NYSE: UXG) priced its public offering of 15 million common shares at $6.50 per share.
Increased enrollments lifted fourth quarter earnings for American Public Education (Nasdaq: APEI) and the for-profit educator expects higher enrollments in the first quarter as well.
On the downside
While Blue Coat Systems (Nasdaq: BCSI) reported higher third quarter earnings, the results fell short of expectations and the company forecast disappointing fourth quarter results.
Merge Healthcare (Nasdaq: MRGE) reversed year ago losses to post a profit for the fourth quarter but the stock price fell.Snyder's-Lance (Nasdaq: LNCE) swung to a larger than expected loss for the fourth quarter.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by nearly 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks edged up a fraction to 834.
