The markets extended its gains during the midday with the Dow leaping 182 points to 17,932. Nasdaq soared 40 points to 4,912.

On the upside

Inovio Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: INO) narrowed fourth quarter losses more than expected and announced that it received a five year $16 million Integrated Preclinical/Clinical AIDS Vaccine Development Program grant.

Advaxis (Nasdaq: ADXS) reported upbeat preliminary data from a Phase 1/2 clinical study of its immunotherapy ADXS-HPV.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) reported low mortality rates at 30-days for the SAPIEN 3 transcatheter aortic valve.

On the downside

iDreamSky (Nasdaq: DSKY) lowered its fourth quarter revenue guidance prompting a downgrade.

An appeals court reversed-in-part and vacated-in-part a judgment in Enzo Biochem's (NYSE: ENZ) favor that Life Technologies (Nasdaq: LIFE) infringed on Enzo's patents.

Anthera Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ANTH) reported a loss for the fourth quarter.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by 5 to 4 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 soared 20 points to 2073. Bitcoin added $3 to $288.