Mid-Morning Market Update

Following the market opening Thursday morning, the Dow traded up 0.36 percent to 13,462.20, while the NASDAQ rose 0.29 percent to 3,102.77. The S&P was also up, rising 0.36 percent to 1,438.50. Thor Industries THO received a boost in early trading, rising 4.45 percent to $35.94 following the announcement that its profit rose 20 percent in the fourth-quarter after the close Wednesday. IMAX IMAX also rose following a Susquehanna upgrade. It traded up 4.11 percent to $20.00. Tempur Pedic TPX moved sharply higher, trading up 21.47 percent to $32.53 after announcing it would acquire Sealy ZZ. HB Fuller FUL fell 9.26 percent to $30.29 in early trading following the announcement that it had lowered its guidance for 2012 revenue. Dollar General DG also fell, trading down 2.99 percent to $51.28 after announcing it would perform a 30 million share secondary offering. Shares of Cepheid CPHD fell 3.17 percent to $37.91 after lowering its guidance Wednesday. In economic news, the GDP price index came in exactly at the expected 1.6 percent, equal to the previous figure, while durable goods orders came in at -13.2 percent, well below the estimated -5.0 percent, and even further below the previous figure of 3.3 percent. Core PCE quarter over quarter came in at 1.7 percent, slightly above the expected 1.6 percent, and slightly below last month's 1.8 percent reading. Personal consumption was also lower than expected, coming in at 1.5 percent, below the estimated figure of 1.7 percent. Durable goods ex transportation was well below estimates, coming in at -1.6 percent, versus the expected 0.2 percent. Initial jobless claims were reported at 359k, below the expected 375k, while continuing claims were 3.271 million, below the expected 3.288 million, and a slight improvement over the previous figure of 3.275 million. Finally, pending home sales month over month came in at -2.6 percent, far below the expected 0.3 percent, and even further below last month's figure of 2.6 percent.