Sales of new homes rose 1.6% in November to lift the markets higher during the midday with the Dow climbing 91 points to 12,261. Nasdaq rose 13 points to 2613.
On the upside
Citigroup lifted its price target on Chico's FAS (NYSE: CHS) to $12 from $11.
RAM Energy (Nasdaq: RAME) continued climbing after announcing a $550 million investment from Halcon Resources and that former Petrohawk Energy chief executive Floyd Wilson will become RAM's next chief executive.
Rumors circulated that Digital Sky Technologies invested in Sina (Nasdsaq: SINA).
On the downside
Bloomber reported that Allot Communications (Nasdaq: ALLT) sold networking equipment to a distributor who shipped the products to Iran.
Shares of CPI (NYSE: CPH) continued falling after reporting lower third quarter revenue yesterday.
PHH (Nasdaq: PHH) extended its losses after Standard & Poor's lowered the company's credit rating on Wednesday.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 2 points to 747.
