The markets opened mixed as investors focused on corporate news and a slight decline in oil prices. The Dow edged up 7 points to 12,290 while Nadsaq held steady at 2300.

On the upside

Chinese online gaming company The9 Ltd. (Nasdaq: NCTY) posted a smaller profit, but the results still beat estimates.

Shares of Omnicare (NYSE: OCR) rose after the assisted-living service provider added ValueAct Capital founder and CEO Jeffrey W. Ubben to its board.

DirecTV Group (NYSE: DTV) was upgraded by an analyst citing strong subscriber growth in Latin America for the satellite TV services.

On the downside

Shares of Cbeyond (Nasdaq: CBEY) tumbled after the Internet-based phone and data services company lowered its 2008 outlook.

Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) posted lower earnings while investors worried about the outlook for the maker of TurboTax software.

Merrill Lynch downgraded government-sponsored lenders Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) amid the ongoing credit turmoil.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost a point to 695.