On the upside
General Motors (NYSE: GM) and the United Auto Workers union reached a tentative agreement for a new local contract at a truck plant in Flint, Michigan.Bernstein Research analyst Janet Brashear said that Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) will survive the current financial crisis.
Rumors that SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK) will be acquired lifted shares of the flash memory chip maker.
On the downside
Huntington Bancshares (Nasdaq: HBAN) chief executive Thomas Hoaglin received a $2.6 million compensation package in 2008. He earned $2.2 million in 2007.
ThinkEquity analyst Mike Burton initiated coverage of Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) with a Sell rating and a stock price target of $30, well below today's closing price of $40.18.
Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Doug Reid downgraded EMC (NYSE: EMC) saying that the company's market share will fall.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 3 points to 393.