The markets retreated from early morning highs but continued to trade in positive territory during the midday with the Dow rising 37 points to 12,541 as existing homes sales advanced in April. Nasdaq added 2 points to 2849.

On the upside

Shares of Radian (NYSE: RDN) continued climbing after major shareholder Clinton Group said yesterday that a company expressed interest in acquiring the mortgage insurer.

Urban Outfitters (Nasdaq: URBN) reported lower first quarter earnings but the results topped analyst estimates.

Twice as many Business Insider readers share links every day on LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) rather than on Google+.

On the downside

Shares Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) plunged over bankruptcy concerns.

A Seeking Alpha contributor listed Seagate Technology (Nasdaq: STX) as one of five dividend stocks that are expected to double their payouts within five years but the stock price fell.

Investors locked in profits on Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) whose stock price climbed yesterday on an analyst recommendation to buy coal stocks.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE while decliners barely edged out advancers by a slim margin on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks edged up a fraction to 765.