The Dow Gained 5 Points, Nasdaq Added 1

The Dow gained 4.57 points today to close at 12,666.31, the Nasdaq gained 0.89 points to close at 2,471.49, and the S&P 500 added 1.01 points to close at 1,448.0. The markets closed with little reaction to Fed Chairman Bernanke's speech today. Investors were hoping he would comment on interest rates, but Bernanke mainly talked about education, trade and economic inequality. Separately, oil rose $0.14 to $58.88.

Volume was heavy with 2.68 billion shares trading on the NYSE and 2.22 billion trading on the Nasdaq.
Advancers topped Decliners by a margin of 21:12 on the NYSE and 17:13 on the Nasdaq.

In Individual stories, Nuance Communications (Nasdaq: NUAN) gained 18.3% after reporting Q1 EPS of $0.13, 3 cents better than estimates. Revenues were $132.4 million vs. $129.1 million consensus.
Globalstar Inc. (Nasdaq: GSAT) fell 28.2% after the Company reported a number of its satellites have experienced various anomalies over time, one of which is a degradation in the performance of the solid-state power amplifiers of the S-band communications antenna. The S-band antenna provides the downlink from the satellite to a subscriber's phone or data terminal. Degraded performance of the S-band antenna reduces the quality of two-way voice and data communication between the affected satellites and the subscriber and may reduce the duration of a call. If the S-band antenna on a satellite ceases to function entirely, two-way communication is impossible over that satellite, but not necessarily over the constellation as a whole. The root cause of the degradation in performance of the amplifiers is unknown, although the Company believes it may result from irradiation of the satellites in orbit.

Companies expected to report earnings tomorrow: Apollo Group (Nasdaq: APOL), AutoNation (NYSE: AN), Cache (Nasdaq: CACH), CIGNA (NYSE: CI), Dean Foods (NYSE: DF), Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN), DIRECTV (NYSE: DTV), News Corp (NYSE: NWS.A), Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL), Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE), and Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR).

Investors will be looking for economic data on Oil Inventories, December Consumer Credit, and Nonfarm productivity.

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