Markets Advance As Retail Sales Rise

August 14, 2012 at 13:14 PM EDT

The markets advanced during the midday with the Dow gaining 35 points to 13,205 as retail sales climbed last month. Nasdaq rose 8 points to 3030.
On the upside
Nationstar Mortgage (NYSE: NSM) reported sharply higher second quarter earnings and revenue.
A Seeking Alpha contributor listed three reasons for naming Ascent Solar Technologies (Nasdaq: ASTI) as the best solar speculation stock.
Pluristem (Nasdaq: PSTI) selected Cato Research to conduct its Phase II trial in intermittant claudication in Germany.
On the downside
Envivio (Nasdaq: ENVI) cut its revenue guidance for the second quarter. Lone Pine Resources (NYSE: LPR) fell to a second quarter loss.
MarketWest Energy (NYSE: MWE) priced its public offering of 6 million common units at the discounted price of $50.72 per unit.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 2 points to 801.