Strong corporate earnings lifted the markets during the midday with the Dow soaring 170 points to 12,437. Nasdaq jumped 51 points to 2796.
On the upside
VMWare (NYSE: VMW) reported sharply higher first quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations as revenue climbed.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions lifted their Cease and Desist orders on CIT Bank (NYSE: CIT).
Doral Financial (NYSE: DRL) reversed year ago losses to post a profit for the first quarter.
On the downside
MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG) disappointed with a much wider than expected loss for the first quarter.
Although United Rentals (NYSE: URI) narrowed first quarter losses, the losses were wider than analysts expected.
Copperfield Research issued a report alleging that OCZ (Nasdaq: OCZ) committed fraud.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks surged 13 points to 836.
