Investors embraced strong corporate earnings to lift the markets to a sharply higher close with the Dow leaping 194 points to 13,115. Nasdaq soared 54 points to 3042.

On the upside

SICMicro will use MIPS Technologies' (Nasdaq: MIPS) MIPS32 processor core for its next generation set-top box.

Sunrise Senior Living (NYSE: SRZ) will sell its interest in 16 senior living communities for approximately $28 million.

Teekay Tankers (NYSE: TNK) will pay approximately $455 million to purchase a fleet of 13 vessels from Teekay Corp. (NYSE: TK).

On the downside

ZOOM Technologies (Nasdaq: ZOOM) fell to a loss for the fourth quarter despite higher revenue.

Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE) widened second quarter losses as revenue fell.

Zynga (Nasdaq: ZNGA) plans to spend millions to acquire more companies.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks surged 12 points to 810.