The markets traded higher during the midday with the Dow gaining 26 points to 15,037 as a sharp drop in durable goods orders sparked speculation that the Federal Reserve would delay tapering. Nasdaq climbed 24 points to 3682.

On the upside

Response Genetics (Nasdaq: RGDX) acquired assets of Pathwork diagnostics including the proprietary FDA-cleared, Medicare-reimbursed test to diagnose metastatic, poorly differentiated and undifferentiated cancer.

The Pritzker family will pay a premium of approximately $1 billion in cash to acquire TMS International (NYSE: TMS).

Rumors circulated that BioMarin (Nasdaq: BMRN) may make an offer to acquire the remaining shares of Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners (Nasdaq: CPRX) that it does not already own.

On the downside

A Seeking Alpha contributor expects Ambarella (Nasdaq: AMBA) to report third quarter earnings below expectations and to trim its full year guidance.

JPMorgan downgraded Noah Holdings (NYSE: NOAH) from an Overweight rating to a Neutral rating.

A judge denied a mistrial request made by Marvell Technology (Nasdaq: MRVL) in a patent infringement suit in which Marvell was order to pay Carnegie Mellon University $1.17 billion in damages.  

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 3 to 2 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added 4 points to 1667.