The markets traded higher during the midday even as industrial production fell and oil prices rose. The Dow climbed 51 points to 13,161 while Nasdaq gained 13 points to 2631.

On the upside

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) offered $164 million to acquire Coley Pharmaceutical (Nasdaq: COLY).

Although Jack in the Box (NYSE: JBX) reported lower fourth quarter earnings, the results surpassed expectations.

Tyco Electronics (NYSE: TEL) beat fourth quarter estimates and said that the company expects international sales to continue growing.

On the downside

Acacia Research's (Nasdaq: ACTG) subsidiary Computer Accerleration lost a patent case filed against Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT).

The9 Ltd. (Nasdaq: NCTY) blamed surging operating expenses for a drop in third quarter earnings that fell short of expectations.

Shares of Infineon Technologies (NYSE: IFX) continued to fall after widening fourth quarter losses as revenue dropped.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 6 points to 765.