Despite falling home sales, the markets traded in positive territory during the midday on hopes that the housing market will rebound. The Dow gained 33 points to 12,414 while Nasdaq added 4 points to 2307.

On the upside

GTx (Nasdaq: GTXI) reported positive late stage trial results for its prostate cancer treatment toremifene citrate.

Private equity firm Hellman & Friedman will take Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) private for approximately $2.1 billion.

Zebra Technologies (Nasdaq: ZBRA) reported higher fourth quarter earnings that beat expectations as international sales rose.

On the downside

Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Ittai Kidron downgraded Motorola (NYSE: MOT) saying that cell phone demand will drop in the first quarter.

Openheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney lowered her earnings estimates for Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and J. P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM).

Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI) blamed power outages for possibly laying off up to 6,900 employees.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by more than 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks gained 3 points to 699.