Stocks shrugged off conflicting data out of China and downbeat reports in Europe to log gains for the first trading day of the quarter. Investors were helped by the ISM beat and the official Chinese manufacturing survey that conflicted with the downbeat HSBC survey. Concern still remains for the US economy as it recovers in a sputtering fashion. Most investors will be focused on the March jobs numbers and their effect on the unemployment rate. Expectations are for a continued expansion in job creation.
With domestic economic data helping push aside European fears, the Dow closed up over 52 points to 13,264. The Nasdaq added 28 to 3,120 , and the S&P 500 tacked on 11 to 1,419.
After Hours Stocks to Watch
Vringo, Inc. (AMEX:VRNG) is up 6.45% in after hours trading today at $3.30. VRNG closed regular trading hours up 87.88%. Volume exploded on VRNG today with 17.8 million shares traded, way above its daily average of 826 thousand shares. VRNG shares jumped today after a TechCrunch article on a lawsuit between Vringo and Google.
Dynegy Inc. (NYSE:DYN) is up 3.85% in after hours trading at $0.54. DYN has traded 122 thousand shares in after hours trading. DYN shares have dropped $2 a share since the start of the year. The company has a market cap of 63.90 million.
Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG) is up 3.01% in after hours trading at $3.77. FIG has traded 209 thousand shares in after hours trading. FIG recently saw a major insider buy with Director David Barry buying 400,000 shares at $3.48. The company has a market cap of 695.05 million.
Uranium Energy Corp. (AMEX:UEC) is down 3.89% in after hours trading at $3.71. UEC has traded 55 thousand shares in after hours trading. UEC announced a 5.56 million share offering at $3.60 per share after market close today. The company has a market cap of 293.15 million.
BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPAX) is down 2.53% in after hours trading at $0.73. BPAX has traded nearly 32 thousand shares in after hours trading. BPAX shares jumped more than 10% in regular trading today and closed at $0.75. The company has a market cap of 82.51 million.
GMX Resources Inc. (NYSE:GMXR) is down 2.29% in after hours trading at $1.28. GMXR has traded 21 thousand shares in after hours trading. GMXR shares are down $0.50 a share in the past month. The company has a market cap of 79.54 million.
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