On the upside
Third quarter earnings surged for China Housing & Land Development (Nasdaq: CHLN) as revenue tripled.
Deutsche Bank upgraded Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD) to a Buy rating and lifted its price target on the company.
Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) extended its development deal with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals(Nasdaq: REGN) through 2017.
On the downside
While JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO) reversed year ago losses to swing to a third quarter profit, the company reported lower revenue and warned that prices will continue to drop in the fourth quarter.
Collins Stewart downgraded Sigma Designs (Nasdaq: SIGM) to a Sell rating saying that the chip maker may lose market share to rival Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCM).
Although Macy's (NYSE: M) narrowed third quarter losses, the department store forecast fourth quarter results well below analyst estimates.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 4 points to 591.