The markets continued to advance during the midday with the Dow gaining 69 points to 15,066. Nasdaq climbed 32 points to 3806.

On the upside

Renren (NYSE: RENN) rose again over continued speculation that Baidu (NYSE: BIDU) may buy the company.

Howard Weil lifted its price target on Penn Virginia (NYSE: PVA) from $10 to $12.

Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital acquired a 5.3% stake in Pandora (NYSE: P).

On the downside

Shares of Taser (Nasdaq: TASR) continued falling after announcing price cuts yesterday.

The stock price of Cherry Hill Mortgage (NYSE: CHMI) fell on its first trading day.

Forest Oil (NYSE: FST) will sell its Texas Panhandle assets for $1 billion but analysts questioned the price as too low.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 gained 10 points to 1689.