Investors embraced upbeat industrial production growth in Europe to lift the markets higher during the midday with the Dow gaining 61 points to 10,272. Nasdaq rose 22 points to 2266.
On the upside
A Barron's article said that AVI Biopharma's (Nasdaq: AVII) stock has significant upside potential.
Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC) will pay approximately $1.4 billion to acquire Bresnan. The cable operator will also repurchase up to $500 million worth of common shares.
Helix (NYSE: HLX) sent another vessel to the Gulf of Mexico to assist in oil spill containment operations.
On the downside
CompuCredit Holdings (Nasdaq: CCRT) widened losses for the year.
Lazard (NYSE: LAZ) announced that Bank of America Merrill Lynch managing director Marc H. Katz will join Lazard as the new Managing Director in the Global Telecommunications, Media and Technology Investment Banking Group.
Xinyuan Real Estate (NYSE: XIN) terminated a best efforts offering by three shareholders of up to 9.5 milllion American Depositary Shares.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 10 points to 659.
