Pending Home Sales Rise, Markets Advance

A surprise increase in pending sales of existing homes lifted the markets during the midday with the Dow gaining 41 points to 12,343. Nasdaq soared 28 points to 2793.

On the upside

Third quarter earnings for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR) nearly tripled to surpass analyst expectations by a wide margin as sales of the company's Keurig brewing systems surged.

Liz Claiborne (NYSE: LIZ) widened second quarter losses but revenue climbed to beat analyst expectations.

Fairfax Financial and WL Ross & Co. each acquired a 9% stake in Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE) while The Capital Group bought a 6% share.

On the downside

The Wall Street Journal reported that Genzyme's contingent value rights (Nasdaq: GCVRZ) holders are unlikely to receive payments from parent company Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) as production delays plagued manufacturing facilities.

TriQuint Semiconductor (Nasdaq: TQNT) disappointed with lower second quarter earnings and forecast third quarter results well below analyst estimates.

Akamai Technologies (Nasdaq: AKAM) reported higher second quarter earnings but the results fell short of analyst expectations and the company forecast current quarter results below estimates.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 6 points to 806.