In commodities, corn futures continued to rise on weather across the U.S. December corn rose 20.5 cents to $6.145 per bushel. WTI crude futures fell 53 cents to $78.68 and gold futures fell $16.60 to $1571.80.

The for profit education institution Apollo Group, Inc. (APOL) rose 9% after better than expected earnings.

News Corp (NWS) gained 6% as talks emerged that they would split into two separate companies, one for film, and one for print and online news.

Zynga (ZNGA) peaked up almost 3% in morning trading in anticipation of its release of new products.