Apparently CenturyTel, a mostly rural local phone company, rose 3.5 percent when Morgan Stanley raised their rating. CenturyTel, who plans on changing their name to CenturyLink has recently acquired Embarq Corp and has now become the 4th largest landline carrier in the United States in market value reports marketwatch.

Verizon Communications added 0.8 percent, while Sprint dropped some pennies and AT&T rose 1.8 percent.

Nokia was the lone gainer in the equipment sector and climbed 0.5 percent after brokerage Nomura upped its stock price target to $16.50 from $15.08 while Motorola and Ericsson fell 1 percent and Telus lost 5 percent.