Mixed Close On Steady Consumer Prices
August 15, 2012 at 10:17 AM EDT
It was a mixed close for the markets with the Dow losing 7 points to 13,164 while Nasdaq gained 13 points to 3030 as consumer prices held steady in July.On the upsideSprint (NYSE: S) began offering a $100 American Express rewards card for all online smartphone purchases. MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS) will deploy its Voice over LTE service soon.VimpelCom (NYSE: VIP) reported sharply higher second quarter earnings that surpassed analyst expectations.On the downsideKeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Scott Hamann downgraded Smith & Wesson (Nasdaq: SWHC) to a Hold rating. FBR Capital downgraded MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG) to a Market Perform rating.Ellington Financial (NYSE: EFC) priced its public offering of 3.5 million common shares at the discounted price of $22.45 per share.In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 7 points to 804.
