The markets closed modestly higher as Ambac Financial's plan to raise capital won approval from insurance regulators. The Dow gained 41 points to 12,255 while Nasdaq rose 13 points to 2273.

On the upside

VON Magazine awarded Synchronoss Technologies (Nasdaq: SNCR) its 2008 VON Magazine Innovator Award for its ConvergenceNow software platform.

BearingPoint (NYSE: BE) landed a contract with the Army Medical Research and Material Command valued at up to $115 million over a five year period.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) reported that its February traffic rose 6.7% as international traffic surged 13.1%.

On the downside

UCBH (Nasdaq: UCBH) increased its loan-loss provisions for the fourth quarter as more loans are being written off.

Shares of Moneygram International (NYSE: MGI) tumbled after Jim Cramer recommended that investors purchase Moneygram rival Western Union (NYSE: WU).

Citi Investment Research analyst Donald Fandetti downgraded KKR Financial Holdings (NYSE: KFN) saying that an impending recession will further erode the credit markets.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks edged up 3 points to 684.