No Miracle on Wall Street

Following the previous close, things were busy on the technology front. Shares of Linux distributor Red Hat (RHT Quote) surged as the company had a solid third-quarter report, topping profit estimates by 2 cents and saying revenue jumped 45%. Red Hat gained $4.50, or 25.1%, to finish at $22.46.

Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIMM Quote) beat analysts' adjusted earnings targets for its latest quarter and had revenue of $835.1 million, easily surpassing the consensus target. Shares of RIM retraced early gains and closed lower by $3.70, or 2.8%, at $130.

Elsewhere, Qualcomm (QCOM Quote) cut its first-quarter earnings forecast, citing higher legal costs and a nonpayment from a customer, but said revenue would be at the high end of its expectations. Qualcomm lost 73 cents, or 1.9%, to $37.81.

Walgreen (WAG Quote) posted first-quarter earnings of $432 million, or 43 cents a share, up 25% from the year-ago period. Revenue rose 17% from a year earlier to $12.71 billion. The Thomson First Call consensus was for earnings of 41 cents a share on revenue of $12.55 billion. Shares gained 72 cents, or 1.6%, to $46.68.

Among analyst moves, RBC Capital Markets upgraded Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG Quote) to outperform from underperform, and First Albany raised its rating for Micron (MU Quote) to buy from neutral.

Chipotle rose $1.07, or 2%, to close at $55.52. Micron added 46 cents, or 3.1%, to $13.95.

Turning to commodities, the February oil contract finished lower ahead of the holiday, losing 25 cents at $62.41 a barrel in volatile trading. Natural gas also slipped. Precious metals ticked higher, with gold finishing up 70 cents to $622.30 an ounce and silver adding 14 cents to $12.63 an ounce.

Overseas, the Tokyo Nikkei climbed 0.3% to 17,105, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was higher by 0.5% at 19,320. London's FTSE was up 0.1% at 6190, and Frankfurt's Xetra DAX eased 1.1% at 6503.