Mid-Day Report

An upbeat durable goods report lifted the markets higher during the midday with the Dow soaring 105 points to 11,518.  Nasdaq leaped 25 points to 2387.

On the upside

Federal contractor SI International (Nasdaq: SINT) agreed to be acquired by British company Serco Group for approximately $423 million.

A group including the former chief executive of Rossignol, Bruno Cercley, offered approximately $147.6 million to purchase Quiksilver's (NYSE: ZQK) ski gear unit Rossignol.

Shares of home builders Lennar (NYSE: LEN) and KB Homes (NYSE: KBH) rose after Mad Money's Jim Cramer said that the housing slump will bottom out by the third quarter of 2009.

On the downside

Novartis (NYSE: NVS) decided not to file for regulatory approval of the nail fungus treatment the Swiss pharmaceutical developed with NexMed (Nasdaq: NEXM) after disappointing late stage trial results.

After twenty more patient deaths in a late stage clinical trial of its prostate cancer treatement GVAX, biotechnology company Cell Genesys (Nasdaq: CEGE) halted the study.

Although second quarter earnings for Solarfun Power Holdings (Nasdaq: SOLF) surged to top estimates, the Chinese solar cell maker warned that the average price of its photovoltaic modules will drop next year.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks jumped 11 points to 734.