The markets closed flat with the Dow adding 19 points to 17,535 ahead of Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen's speech tomorrow. Nasdaq lost 6 points to 4,766.
On the upside
BB&T Capital Markets upgraded Finish Line (Nasdaq: FINL) from a Hold rating to a Buy rating.
Bloomberg reported that Virgin America (Nasdaq: VA) received acquisition offers from Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK) and JetBlue (Nasdaq: JBLU).
Cal-Maine Foods (Nasdaq: CALM) reported higher fourth quarter earnings and revenue that surpassed analyst expectations.
On the downside
Shares of MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD) extended its losses.
Vericel (Nasdaq: VCEL) announced the publication of the clinical rationale and study design for it's Phase 2b ixCELL-DCM clinical trial of ixmyelocel-T in patients with advanced heart failure due to ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy.
PJT Partners (NYSE: PJT) partner Andrew Caspersen was fired for securities and wire fraud.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 9 to 7 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added a point to 2,037. Bitcoin slipped $2 to $421.
