Rising optimism that the fiscal cliff will be avoided sent the markets surging to a sharply higher close with the Dow rocketing 207 points to 12,795. Nasdaq leaped 62 points to 2916.
On the upside
Investors expect Acadia Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ACAD) to report upbeat results from a Phase III clinical trial of its Parkinson's disease psychosis treatment at the end of the month.
The Food and Drug Administration expanded approval of Ligand Pharmaceuticals' (Nasdaq: LGND) and GlaxoSmithKline's (NYSE: GSK) Promacta to treat chronic hepatitis C patients with low blood platelet counts.
3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) affirmed all its public disclosures and filings in a conference call this morning.
On the downside
Assurant (NYSE: AIZ) named Larry N. Port to the position of senior vice president, corporate development.
Shares of Safe Bulkers (NYSE: SB) continued falling after reporting lower third quarter margins last week.
Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) clarified that it was not in engaged in discussions to form a new search partnership with Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 8 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 4 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks leaped 15 points to 791.
Markets Rocket Over Fiscal Cliff Talks
November 19, 2012 at 17:24 PM EST
