Upbeat earnings news lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow soaring 138 points to 10,354. Nasdaq climbed 24 points to 2222.
On the upside
Alcoa (NYSE: AA) reversed year ago losses to post a better than expected second quarter profit as demand increased.
A Food and Drug advisory panel noted certain side effects to Vivus' (Nasdaq: VVUS) obesity treatment Qnexa but said that use of the drug does result in significant loss of weight.
Fund manager Bruce Berkowitz acquired an 11% stake in MBIA (NYSE: MBI).
On the downside
Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED) warned that second quarter earnings will fall short of expectations prompting a downgrade.
Stifel Nicolaus downgraded CommVault (Nasdaq: CVLT) after the company announced lower preliminary second quarter results.
Infosys Technologies (Nasdaq: INFY) reported an unexpected drop in first quarter earnings.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 6 to 1 on the NYSE and by a margin of 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 9 points to 631.
