• Share prices of Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE:CPB) gained 2.79% after the company’s decision to axe 770 employees of the company globally was given the green signal by its investors. Campbell Soup also announced it was shutting down a plant in Russia

• VeriSign, Inc's (NASDAQ:VRSN) share prices climbed 2.52% to $33.57 after the company extended its agreement to continue to operate the .NET application for another six years

• Share prices of software giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) fell marginally, by 0.70% to close at $25.62, a day after the company announced plans to launch an online version of its office program

• Share prices of homebuilder KB Home (NYSE:KBH) slid 15.44% after the company posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss

• Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) said it plans to increase its presence in the Chinese market, especially in the cloud computing and data storage segments

• Software maker Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) said it has bought Pillar Data Systems Inc. Pillar Data Systems is a small California-based software company, whose majority shares are held by Larry Ellison, Chief Executive of Oracle

• Societe Generale initiated coverage on Arch Coal Inc (NYSE:ACI) with a “Buy” rating and a target price of $30

• Analysts at Sterne Agee initiated coverage on AnnTaylor Stores Corp. (NYSE:ANN) with a “Buy” rating and a target price of $32, citing the move as a valuation call

• Analysts at Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) initiated coverage on shares of Dynex Capital, Inc. (NYSE:DX) with a "Neutral" rating and a target price of $10

• Analysts at Jefferies initiated coverage on Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) with a “Buy” rating and a target price of $8.50