Upbeat earnings along with a drop in jobless claims sent the markets soaring to a sharply higher close with the Dow rocketing 217 points to 17,141. Nasdaq leaped 87 points to 4,870.

On the upside

An existing shareholder of Affimed (Nasdaq: AFMD) increased its holdings by 3.3 million common shares.

Dyax (Nasdaq: DYAX) was added to the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index.

Bloomberg reported that Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS) will sell assets in order to win approval of its proposed acquisition of Office Depot (Nasdaq: ODP).

On the downside

Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) reported lower third quarter earnings as the company added fewer U.S. streaming customers than expected.

Koppers Holdings (NYSE: KOP) will release third quarter earnings before market open on Thursday, November 5.

Shares of Renewable Energy Group (Nasdaq: REGI) extended its losses.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 leaped 29 points to 2,023. Bitcoin added $2 to $254.