Benzinga Mid-Morning Market Update

Following the market opening Thursday morning, the Dow was down slightly, about 0.01 percent, or roughly 1.78 points. The NASDAQ rose about 0.05 percent, or 1.50 points, while the S&P fell a bit, trading down 0.04 percent, decreasing 0.54 points. The Euro/U.S. Dollar pair traded up 0.02 percent to $1.2903, while the U.S. Dollar/Japanese Yen fell 0.58 percent, trading around $77.4050. Another pair falling slightly was the Pound British Sterling/ U.S. Dollar pair which traded down 0.02 percent to $1.6107. Gold rose to $1,731.63 up about $0.53, and Silver traded down slightly around $33.10, down roughly $0.13. Crude Oil was up, rising 0.94 percent to about $97.92 while Natural Gas traded down 0.42 percent to $3.05. U.S. three-month treasury bonds fell 0.010 percent, while three-year dropped 0.029 percent, and ten-year decreased 0.040 percent. FirstMerit (NASDAQ; FMER) announced its acquisition of Citizens Republic Bancorp (NASDAQ; CRBC) for $912M in stock. Shares of CRBC rose 1.61 percent in early trading, while shares of FirstMerit fell 10.49 percent. In tech news, Facebook's

rally continued as share prices rose 0.54%, trading around $21.05. Shares of Equinix

surged 10.27% to $205.70 in early trading, following news that its board approved the company's REIT conversion plan. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve is set to speak to the press early Thursday afternoon. The market is expecting an announcement of QE3, or at least some form of monetary policy, so some analysts believe the market already has the Fed's measures factored into its price.