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.
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