The markets opened mixed with the Dow slipping 28 points to 16,396 while Nasdaq rose 10 points to 4,096 as investors continued to monitor corporate earnings.
On the upside
First quarter earnings soared for SanDisk (Nasdaq: SNDK) to surpass analyst expectations prompting Credit Suisse and Jefferies to raise their price targets on the flash memory maker.
JPMorgan upgraded Boardwalk Pipeline Partners (NYSE: BWP) from an Underweight rating to an Overweight rating.
Shares of Sabre (Nasdaq: SABR) rose on its first trading day.
On the downside
Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) founder and chairman Leonard Riggio reduced his stake in the company from 26.3% to approximately 20% by selling 3.7 million shares.
Shares of Moneygram International (Nasdaq: MGI) and Western Union (NYSE: WU) fell on Wal-Mart's (NYSE: WMT) announcement that it would begin offering a domestic money transfer service on April 24.
The Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that a contract awarded to Net 1 UEPS Technologies (Nasdaq: UEPS) was invalid and a new tender process must be initiated.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by a margin of nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 lost 3 points to 1859. Bitcoin fell $32.52 or 6.17% to $494.63.
