Despite disappointing January retail sales, the markets traded higher during the midday with the Dow gaining 48 points to 12,249. Nasdaq rose 20 points to 2299.

On the upside

Power Integrations (Nasdaq: POWI) reported fourth quarter earnings that more than doubled.

J. C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) reported a much more modest 1.9% slip in same store sales than the expected 6.3% drop.

Fourth quarter earnings for Laboratory Corp. of America (NYSE: LH) rose to beat expectations.

On the downside

Select Comfort (Nasdaq: SCSS) blamed the weak economy for reporting sharply lower fourth quarter earnings that missed expectations by a wide margin.

Fourth quarter revenue fell to miss expectations for Idearc (NYSE: IAR) while the publisher of yellow and white page directories warned that 2008 revenue will also disappoint.

Infineon Technologies (NYSE: IFX) swung to a loss for the first quarter and cut its outlook for chips used in phones.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by nearly the same on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 5 points to 697.