The markets traded lower during the midday even as manufacturing activity edged up. The Dow dropped 32 points to 13,340 while Nasdaq was fell 11 points to 2650.

On the upside

Bruker BioSciences (Nasdaq: BRKR) will pay approximately $914 million in cash and stock to acquire privately held Bruker BioSpin.

Shares of Solarfun Power Holdings (Nasdaq: SOLF) continued to rise after reporting sharply higher third quarter earnings and raising its full year revenue guidance last week.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson expressed confidence that an agreement will be reached to temporarily freeze interest rates for homeowners sending shares of Novastar Financial (NYSE: NFI) soaring.

On the downside

In a Barron's article, investor and entreprenuer Mike Farmwald called ParkerVision (Nasdaq: PRKR) worthless.

Bearing Point (NYSE: BE) widend third quarter losses despite higher sales as expenses soared.

Shares of Big Lots (NYSE: BIG) continued to fall after issuing a warning last week that fourth quarter as well as full year results will fall short of expectations.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advaners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost a point to 767.