Benzinga Mid-Afternoon Market Update

Midway through the afternoon Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.56 percent to 13,570.68, while the NASDAQ was up 0.40 percent to 3,147.90. The S&P was also on the rise, increasing 0.69 percent to 1,461.01. Analysts gave partial credit for the rally to Mitt Romney's positive performance in the presidential debate Wednesday night, and to some positive activity in Spain this morning that showed the country may not need as much aid as previously thought. While trade volumes were down Thursday morning, they recovered quickly by mid-day, with many equities seeing more movement. The top story being a report that Sprint

is considering a counter bid for Metro PCS

to top that of T-Mobile. Following the announcement, Metro PCS fell 1.18 percent, while Sprint fell 3.42 percent. Shares of MetroPCS have since rebounded up 2.70 percent while Sprint remains down 2.12 percent. Mattress Firm Holding Corp

traded up 8.05 percent to $32.61 following the announcement for the pricing of its 4.73 million share offering. Arch Coal

also traded up, increasing 7.90 percent to $6.69 following, possibly linked to Romney's positive performance in the presidential debates and his support of coal. Shares NII Holdings

surged 7.93 percent to $8.03 following the announcement it had named Juan Figuereo as its new Chief Financial Officer. Nuvasive

took a big Thursday, falling 33.38 percent to $15.07 following its lowering of guidance and subsequent downgrades by a slew of analysts. Informatica Corporation

slowed its fall towards the end of Thursday, dropping 22.48 percent to $26.07 after the company posted preliminary earnings that came in below analyst estimates. HMS Holdings

dropped further as well, falling 14.13 percent to $27.68 after it lowered its 2012 guidance after the close wednesday In economic news, initial jobless claims came in at 367 thousand, higher than the previous figure of 363 thousand, but slightly below the estimated 370 thousand, while continuing jobless claims came in at 3.281 million, slightly worse than the expected 3.275 million, and equal to the previous figure. Factory orders were also reported, coming in at -5.2 percent, better than the expected -5.9 percent, but much worse than the prior figure of 2.6 percent.