Federal budget deficit plunges, markets soar

The markets surged during the midday with the Dow soaring 136 points to 16,855 as the federal deficit plunged in 2014. Nasdaq climbed 32 points to 4,417.

On the upside

Third quarter earnings slipped for Blackhawk Network Holdings (Nasdaq: HAWK) but the results were better than expected.

Achillion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ACHN) will present data for ACH-3102 and ACH-3422 at The Liver Meeting 2014, the 65th Annual Meeting of The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in November.

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: KERX) chief executive officer Ron Bentsur and chief financial officer James F. Oliviero III both sold shares of the company but the stock price rose.

On the downside

Morgan Stanley analyst Evan L. Kurtz downgraded Walter Energy (NYSE: WLT) from an Overweight rating to an Equalweight rating and slashed his price target from $16 to $4.

Arrowhead Research (Nasdaq: ARWR) reported disappointing results from an ongoing Phase II study of it hepatitis B treatment ARC-520.

J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) warned that third quarter same store sales would fall short of expectations.

In the broad market, declining issues barely edged out advancers by a slim margin on the NYSE while decliners outpaced advancers by nearly 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 climbed 14 point to 1949. Bitcoin gained $15 to $343.
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