A drop in jobless claims lifted the markets to a modestly higher close with the Dow rising 19 points to 12,855. Nasdaq slipped a point to 2933.

On the upside

Feihe International (NYSE: ADY) reported sharply higher first quarter earnings that nearly doubled.

First quarter earnings leaped for InfoSpace (Nasdaq: INSP) as revenue more than doubled.

The European Union approved Cell Therapeutics' (Nasdaq: CTIC) multiply relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas treatment Pixuvri.

On the downside

Fourth quarter earnings slipped for PSS World Medical (Nasdaq: PSSI) to fall short of expectations and the company announced that it will sell some of its businesses.

Comments by Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) that corporate spending will drop sent shares of Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) tumbling.

Cenveo (NYSE: CVO) fell to a loss for the first quarter due to charges.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 2 points to 791.