An increase in September wholesale inventories and sales lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow rising 10 points to 11,417. Nasdaq gained 8 points to 2588.
On the upside
Chevron (NYSE: CVX) will acquire Atlas Energy (Nasdaq: ATLS) in a deal valued at approximately $4.3 billion.
BusinessofVideo reported that Limelight Networks (Nasdaq: LLNW) and Level 3 (Nasdaq: LVLT) will once again provide content delivery network services to Netflix (NYSE: NFLX) after Netflix experienced problems with Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM).
Third quarter earnings for LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) more than tripled to surpass analyst expectations by a wide margin and the company forecast fourth quarter results well ahead of estimates.
On the downside
Solarfun Power Holdings (Nasdaq: SOLF) will offer approximately $67.8 million in American Depositary Shares through a public offering.
Dean Foods (NYSE: DF) disappointed with lower third quarter earnings that fell short of expectations and announced the resignation of chief financial officer Jack Callahan effective November 30 to be replaced by Shauna Mara.
Sunstone Hotel (NYSE: SHO) priced its public offering of 19.5 million common shares at the discounted price of $10.25 per share.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by more than 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a fraction to 736.
