Mid-Day Markets Update: Markets Recover on Fiscal Cliff Meeting; Casino Stocks Continue to Ramp

Mid-way through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.33 percent to 12,583.35 while the NASDAQ rose 0.55 percent to 2,852.42. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.46 percent to 1,359.56.

Hostess announced this morning that it would be filing for bankruptcy due to trouble with product demand and its recent labor relations issues. The company plans to liquidate its holdings.

Penn National Gaming

consolidate its gain, remaining up 29.75 percent to $48.80 after the company announced it would split into two separate companies to optimize its performance. Shares of Ameristar Casinos

rose 14.42 percent to $19.28 following the news on Penn's restructuring. OfficeMax

also consolidated its gains, remaining up 20.17 percent at $9.87 following the IPO filing by Boise Cascade.

Dynavax Technologies

remained down 46.44 percent at $2.48 following a negative FDA recommendation on its Hepatitis C vaccine yesterday. SINA Corp

fell 14.61 percent to $45.33 following a Citigroup downgrade of the company this morning. Shares of Sears Holdings

traded down 19.12 percent to $47.30 despite posting a lower than expected loss after the close Thursday.

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.29 percent to $86.55, while gold traded down 0.13 percent to $1,715.80. Silver traded down 0.20 percent Friday to $32.48.

In the eurozone this morning markets continued to fall on Spanish finance fears. The IMF director came out with a statement urging finance officials to make a timely decision on Greece. BUBA's Weidmann also was out with some statements, saying Greece will need more time than other countries to reform and that the ESM bailout is currently sufficient.

In economic news, TIC net long-term transactions came in at $4.7 billion vs the expected $50.0 billion and the prior number of $63.5 billion. Capacity utilization rate was reported at 77.8 percent, slightly above the expected 78.4 percent, but below the prior report of 78.2 percent. Industrial production month over month was also reported, coming in at -0.4 percent, below the expected 0.2 percent as well as the prior report. Overall net capital flow came in at $3.3 billion, drastically below the expected $50.0 billion and the prior report of $90.3 billion