7.4 Earthquake In Japan Sends Markets Lower At Midday

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck off the coast of northeastern Japan sending the markets down during the midday with the Dow falling 45 points to 12,381. Nasdaq lost 5 points to 2794.

On the upside

Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR) reported sharply higher fourth quarter earnings that topped analyst estimates as revenue rose.

IntraLinks Holdings (NYSE: IL) priced its follow-on offering of 7.5 million common shares at $25.50 per share.

ImmunoGen (Nasdaq: IMGN) reported positive results from a midstage clinical trial of its breast cancer treatment T-DM1.

On the downside

Televisa (NYSE: TV) will acquire 50% of cell phone company Iusacell for approximately $1.6 billion.

Brazil announced plans to increase government regulation of ethanol weighing down shares of the world's largest producer of ethanol Cosan (NYSE: CZZ).

Variant View Research maintained its allegations of fraud against Advanced Battery Technologies (Nasdaq: ABAT) with its response today to Advanced Battery's press release yesterday.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 3 points to 850.