Thor (Thoratec) Soars On Rumored Bid By St. Jude Medical

em>Joel Elconin is the co-host of

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Thoratec Corporation

shares are trading sharply higher by $9.50 at $58.22 in Tuesday's session. The catalyst for the rally is a rumored bid for the company by St. Jude Medical

. whose shares which initially spiked to a new all time high ($80.84) before reversing course and is now lower on the day by $0.20 at $76.35. Thoratec, which designs a wide range of clinical needs for advanced heart failure patients, has outpaced the market so far this year, is higher by nearly 18 percent versus the broad market paltry three percent gain. Before the rumor made it around officially around Wall Street desks, Thoratec spiked to $62.05 then retreated to $52 before another wave of speculative buyers entered the marketplace. So far, the second rally came up short of the initial high only reaching $59.57 before falling back and consolidating at the $58 level. Today's rally is taking place on much heavier than average volume. So far, it has traded 7.5M shares compared to its 20 day average of 764K with over two hours remainng in the session. Interestingly, that average daily volume figure was lifted higher by the 2.18M shares that traded on Monday ahead of the buyout rumors sweeping the Street.