Upbeat Economic Data Lifts Markets To Higher Close

The markets closed higher with the Dow climbing 61 points to 12,169 as investors embraced upbeat economic data. Nasdaq gained 21 points to 2599.

On the upside

SandRidge Energy (NYSE: SD) entered a $1 billion joint venture with Repsol YPF at its Extension Mississippian play and at its Original Mississippian play.   

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) introduced its AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics card, the world's fastest single-GPU graphics card. 

Shares e-Commerce China Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) rose after launching its e-book platform yesterday.

On the downside

CPI (NYSE: CPY) narrowed third quarter losses but revenue dropped. 

Stifel Nicolaus downgrade KB Home (NYSE: KBH) from a Buy rating to a Hold rating.

Shares of TripAdvisor (Nasdaq: TRIP) continued falling after splitting from Expedia yesterday.

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 gained 5 points to 745.