The markets opened higher with the Dow climbing 97 points to 11,354 as many retailers enticed consumers to spend by offering Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving. Nasdaq gained 15 points to 2475.
On the upside
Bargain hunters snapped up shares of Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), whose stock price tumbled last week after Goldman Sachs analyst Tim Boddy slashed his price target on the communications equipment firm.
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) announced Black Friday discounts on its iPad 2, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac.
The Paragon Report issued a research report on Royale Energy (Nasdaq: ROYL) saying that natural gas prices will rise as demand soars.
On the downside
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) cited falling trading volumes for applying to delist from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Vale (NYSE: VALE) named Tito Martins to the position of chief financial officer yesterday.
Investors locked in profits on Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) whose stock price soared earlier this week after reporting better than expected third quarter results.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added a point to 676.
