A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck off the coast of northeastern Japan sending the markets down during the midday with the Dow falling 45 points to 12,381. Nasdaq lost 5 points to 2794.
On the upside
Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR) reported sharply higher fourth quarter earnings that topped analyst estimates as revenue rose.
IntraLinks Holdings (NYSE: IL) priced its follow-on offering of 7.5 million common shares at $25.50 per share.
ImmunoGen (Nasdaq: IMGN) reported positive results from a midstage clinical trial of its breast cancer treatment T-DM1.
On the downside
Televisa (NYSE: TV) will acquire 50% of cell phone company Iusacell for approximately $1.6 billion.
Brazil announced plans to increase government regulation of ethanol weighing down shares of the world's largest producer of ethanol Cosan (NYSE: CZZ).
Variant View Research maintained its allegations of fraud against Advanced Battery Technologies (Nasdaq: ABAT) with its response today to Advanced Battery's press release yesterday.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 3 points to 850.
