Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Cautiously Rising, Best Buy Boosts

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.01 percent to 13,247.25 while the NASDAQ rose 0.29 percent to 3,022.44. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.07 percent to 1,429.02.

Clearwire

saw over an 11 percent gain this morning as Sprint made a bid for the company of $2.90 perc share. Now its just a matter of whether or not the board will accept the offer.

Best Buy

saw a big boost in early trading Thursday, rising 17.65 percent to $14.33 following a report this morning that Richard Schulze would be offering between $5 billion and $6 billion for the company. Shares of RF Micro Devices

saw a boost as well, gaining 9.14 percent to $4.80 on renewed investor confidence in its Chinese operations. CIENA corp

rose as well, trading up 2.92 percent to $16.02 following an earnings beat this morning.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals

fell 30.60 percent to $5.85 Thursday morning following a wave of analyst ratings yesterday. Harbinger Group

was also down, falling 26.32 percent to $7.53 after the company priced its 20 million share secondary offering at $7.50 per share. Shares of Hovnanian Enterprises

dropped 3.10 percent to $5.32 following a big fourth-quarter EPS loss, but beat on revenue.

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.47 percent to $86.36, while gold traded down 1.12 percent to $1,697.40. Silver traded down 1.10 percent Thursday to $33.60.

European markets were largely down this morning amid talks concerning the effectiveness of a European banking union, lead downwards by the German DAX.

Thursday morning was another big day for economic releases, with initial jobless claims coming in at 343 thousand, below the expected 369 thousand and the prior figure of 372 thousand, while continuing claims were reported at 3.198 million, slightly below the anticipated 3.21 million and the previous report of 3.221 million. PPI year over year was reported as well, coming in at 1.50 percent, below the expected 1.80 percent and the prior report of 2.30 percent, while PPI month over month was reported at -0.8 percent, below the anticipated -0.50 percent and the prior release of -0.20 percent. Core CPI year over year came in at 2.2 percent, matching the street estimates, and slightly higher than the previous 2.1 percent, while core CPI month over month was reported at 0.1 percent, again equal to consensus while beating the prior figure of -0.20 percent. Advance retail sales were also reported, coming in at 0.3 percent, slightly below the anticipated 0.5 percent, but beating the prior report of -0.30 percent. Advance retail sales excluding autos came in flat at 0.00 percent, equal to estimates and the prior report, while advance retail sales excluding autos and gas came in above the expected 0.40 percent at 0.70 percent, well above the prior figure of -0.1 percent. Finally, business inventories were reported at 0.4 percent, equal to consensus but lower than last month's reading of 0.70 percent.