Despite a contraction of the nation's economy in the first quarter, the markets advanced during the midday with the Dow rising 21 points to 16,654. Nasdaq gained 14 points to 4,239.
On the upside
Lockheed Martin will pay $61 million for Astrotech's (Nasdaq: ASTC) Astrotech Space Operations business.
An investor purchased 20,000 calls on RadioShack (NYSE: RSH).
Shares of Ventrus Biosciences (Nasdaq: VTUS) soared on no news.
On the downside
NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ) shares continued falling despite announcing two development and partnership deals yesterday.
Tilly's (NYSE: TLYS) disappointed with sharply lower first quarter earnings and forecast second quarter earnings well below analyst estimates.
Profit taking weighed down shares of LiveDeal (Nasdaq: LIVE).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 rose 5 points to 1915. Bitcoin slipped $5.78 or 1.03% to $560.41.
