It was a mixed close for the markets as sales of new homes rose while prices dropped. The Dow gained 27 points to 11,413 while Nasdaq slipped 4 points to 2362.

On the upside

Mad Money's Jim Cramer recommended Clean Energy Fuels (Nasdaq: CLNE) saying that demand will rise with passage of the California Alternative Fuels Initiative .

RBC Capital Markets analyst Leo Mariani initiated coverage of natural gas and oil company Exco Resources (NYSE: XCO) with an Outperform rating.

Gro Group selected Converted Organics (Nasdaq: COIN) to supply seven of its major distributors with organic granular fertilizer.

On the downside

Pork producer Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD) blamed higher costs for swinging to a first quarter loss.

Lehman Brothers downgraded Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) and slashed its full year earnings outlook for the networking solutions provider.

Standard & Poor's downgraded PMI Group (NYSE: PMI) due to the extended downturn of the housing market.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks added 3 points to 724.