Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Surges Above 15000; iGATE Shares Gain On Upbeat Results

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.55 percent to 15,033.07 while the NASDAQ surged 1.89 percent to 3,747.22. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.68 percent to 1,684.14. Top Headline
Yesterday, Citrix Systems CTXS lowered its forecast for the third quarter. The company projects adjusted earnings of $0.68 to $0.69 per share on revenue of $710 million to $712 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.73 per share on revenue of $737 million. Equities Trading UP
PVR Partners LP PVR shot up 14.12 percent to $26.03 after Regency Energy Partners RGP announced its plans to buy PVR Partners for $5.6 billion. Shares of Questcor Pharmaceuticals QCOR got a boost, shooting up 7.68 percent to $58.79 after the company lifted its quarterly dividend by 20%. iGATE IGTE was also up, gaining 8.70 percent to $29.99 after the company reported upbeat Q3 results. Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Citrix Systems CTXS were down 11.49 percent to $59.00 after the company lowered its forecast for the third quarter. Ariad Pharmaceuticals ARIA shares tumbled 3.86 percent to $5.61 Barclays downgraded the stock from Overweight to Underweight and lowered the target price from $25 to $4. Bank of America also downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral. Regency Energy Partners LP RGP was down, falling 6.55 percent to $26.01 after the company announced its plans to buy PVR Partners for $5.6 billion. Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.55 percent to $103.18, while gold traded down 0.57 percent to $1,299.80. Silver traded up 0.20 percent Thursday to $21.94, while copper rose 0.28 percent to $3.24. Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.24 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index surged 1.36 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 1.96 percent and the French CAC 40 climbed 2.21 percent while U.K. shares gained 1.37 percent. Economics
US jobless claims rose 66,000 to 374,000 for the week ended October 5. However, economists were projecting claims to increase to 312,000, versus an unrevised 308,000 in the earlier week. The Bloomberg Consumer Confidence index declined to -29.70 for the week ended for October 6, versus a prior reading of -29.40. Natural gas supplies climbed 90 billion cubic feet for the week ended October 4, the US Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a gain of 93 billion cubic feet to 97 billion cubic feet. The Treasury is set to auction 30-year bonds. Data on money supply will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.