Prime Minister Kan Pledges To Rebuild Japan, Markets Climb
The markets retreated from an early morning spike but continued trading higher with the Dow climbing 80 points to 11,855 as Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan pledged to rebuild the devastated nation. Nasdaq gained 12 points to 2648.
On the upside
Nexxus Lighting (Nasdaq: NEXS) announced that its Array brand premium LED light bulbs will be available at Lowe's stores and Lowes.com beginning June 2011.
Jennings Capital analyst Alka Singh expects global uranium demand to increase despite possible radiation exposure in Japan after the massive earthquake damaged cooling systems at a nuclear power plant. Shares of Uranium Resources climbed (Nasdaq: URRE) .
A CenterPoint Energy (NYSE: LO) natural gas pipeline exploded yesterday morning in Minneapolis but there were no injuries and the fire was contained within two hours.
On the downside
Shares of Nike (NYSE: NKE) continued falling after announcing sharp price increases for their products in 2012.
Stifel Nicolaus lowered its price target for Oclaro (Nasdaq: OCLR) from $19 to $18.
The Law Offices of Howard G. Smith is investigating allegations of possible securities violations by Wilshire Bancorp (Nasdaq: WIBC).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks gained 8 points 794.
