Higher Close On Consolidations And Earnings
Corporate consolidations and upbeat earnings lifted the markets to a higher close with the Dow gaining 61 points to 12,288. Nasdaq climbed 21 points to 2825.
On the upside
Threshold Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: THLD) and the Food and Drug Administration agreed on a Special Protocol Assessment for a Phase 3 randomized trial of the company's soft tissue sarcoma treatment TH-302.
Third quarter earnings slipped for La-A-Boy (NYSE: LZB) but the results surpassed analyst expectations.
Owen's Corning (NYSE: OC) widened fourth quarter losses but the results topped estimates prompting an upgrade.
On the downside
PDL BioPharma (Nasdaq: PDLI) must pay AstraZeneca's (NYSE: AZN) MedImmune unit $92.5 million to settle a patent dispute.
Warren Resources (Nasdaq: WRES) forecast flat oil and gas production for 2011 prompting downgrades.Dice Holdings (NYSE: DHX) priced its public offering of 7 million common shares at $14.25 per share.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks soared 8 points to 828.
