Markets Retreat At Midday As Oil Prices Climb
The markets retreated to trade near the flatline with the Dow easing 2 points to 12,055 as investors monitored volatile crude oil prices. Nasdaq rose 9 points to 2746.
On the upside
Investopedia listed Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) among the top five performing technology stocks in February.
Royale Energy (Nasdaq: ROYL) sold certain assets in Kern County, California but retained royalty on the acreage.
Shares of Hercules Offshore (Nasdaq: HERO) climbed after the government issued the first new permit for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon disaster last April.
On the downside
Hudson City Bancorp (Nasdaq: HCBK) warned that it may be compelled to raise capital by federal regulators.
MBIA (NYSE: MBI) swung to a profit due to a one time unrealized gain of $1.1 billion but premiums fell.W&T Offshore (NYSE: WTI) reported higher fourth quarter earnings that topped estimates but warned of lower production in 2011.In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 3 to 2 on the NYSE while advancers were on par with decliners on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added a point to 808.
