Upbeat earnings news lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow soaring 103 points to 13,983. Nasdaq climbed 22 points to 3154.
On the upside
Liberty Media engaged in discussions for a possible acquisition of Virgin Media (Nasdaq: VMED).
Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post upgraded Zynga (Nasdaq: ZNGA) from Underperform to Buy and boosted his price target from $2.70 to $3.40.
AllThingsD wrote that sales of the BlackBerry Z10 (Nasdaq: BBRY) were better than expected.
On the downside
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) reported higher fourth quarter earnings and revenue but the company's profit growth slowed prompting a downgrade.
Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) fell to a loss for the fourth quarter as revenue dropped.
Fourth quarter earnings slipped for Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) prompting the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell to warn of lower full year earnings.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index gained 12 points to 1507.
