The Dow continued advancing during the midday with the blue chip index soaring 104 points to 18,063 as retail sales approached $10 billion on the Saturday before Christmas. Nasdaq slipped 9 points to 4,772.
On the upside
Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) completed the sale of assets in the Southern Marcellus Shale and a portion of the Eastern Utica Shale to Southwestern Energy (NYSE: SWN).
Shares of DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) continued climbing.
Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) announced its production rate for its deepwater sub-salt fields.
On the downside
Ariad Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ARIA) entered an exclusive agreement for Otsuka Pharmaceutical to commercialize the leukemia treatment Iclusig in ten Asian countries but the stock price fell.
TheStreet's Adam Feuerstein listed Agios Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AGIO) as one of the most expensive development-stage biopharmaceutical firms.
Health Canada approved AbbVie's (NYSE: ABBV) HOLKIRA PAK to treat patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C but the stock price fell.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 rose 6 points to 2084. Bitcoin rose $5 to $334.
Dow continues advance
December 23, 2014 at 13:35 PM EST