Despite falling consumer confidence and rising wholesale prices, the markets soared during the midday as IBM extends is stock repurchase plan. The Dow leaped 127 points to 12,697 while Nasdaq soared 24 points to 2351.

On the upside

Galderma Laboratories will pay approximately $420 million to acquire CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CGPI).

Fourth quarter earnings for China Techfaith Wireless Communication Technology (Nasdaq: CNTF) climbed to surpass expectations due to strong sales.

Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Gary Hsueh upgraded Teradyne (NYSE: TER) saying that the company is poised for strong growth.

On the downside

An International Trade Commission judged stayed Tessera Technologies' (Nasdaq: TSRA) patent lawsuit against Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), Freescale Semiconductor and ATI Technologies.

Healthways (Nasdaq: HWAY) blamed disappointing enrollment numbers for slashing its fiscal 2008 outlook.

Although Foster Wheeler (Nasdaq: FWLT) reported higher fourth quarter earnings, the results fell short of estimates.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 3 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks surged 12 points to 723.