Today was a mixed trading day on somewhat light trading pre-holiday volume throughout most of the trading day and there was no real feeling for a positive or negative close until the afternoon. A drop of 11% in new house sales in November added concerns over the housing recovery. This was in contrast to personal income and spending rising 0.4% and 0.5%, respectively, in November. Oil had a solid day with a $2.22 gain to $76.62 close on big inventory draw-downs. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 10,466.44 +1.51 (0.01%)
S&P 500 1,120.59 +2.57 (0.23%)
Nasdaq 2,269.64 +16.97 (0.75%)
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Ruth's Hospitality Group (RUTH) was down over 10% late in the trading day after the company filed for a PIPE placement from a private equity firm. The deal gives it more flexibility but dilutes holders.
Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) had negative PR after an additional service outage last night, but this has little impact on the real company operations. Shares were actually up 0.6% at $67.62 late in the trading day.
Red Hat (RHT) was higher after beating earnings slightly last night and giving guidance that was above expectations. Shares were up 4.7% at $31.28 late in the trading day.
Achillion Pharmaceuticals (ACHN) was up over 10% most of the trading day after a boutique firm named Roth Capital gave this a buy rating with exponential upside in the stock as a value stock in the fight against hepatitis.
Compugen Ltd. (CGEN) was up sharply after signing a "discovery on demand" therapeutic peptide collaboration with Pfizer (PFE) for three drug targets. Shares were up over 60% at $4.63 late in the day after the stock put in new 52-week highs today. Pfizer shares were down 0.3% at $18.56 late in the trading day.
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