Upbeat earnings lifted the markets during the midday with Dow gaining 51 points to 18,075. Nasdaq rose 15 points to 5,020.

On the upside

Cien (NYSE: CIEN) will purchase Cyan (NYSE: CYNI) in a transaction valued at approximately $400 million.

CytRx (Nasdaq: CYTR) reported upbeat interim results from two ongoing Phase 1b studies of aldoxorubicin to treat bone cancer.

PMFG (Nasdaq: PMFG) will be acquired by CECO Environmental (Nasdaq: CECE) in a cash and stock deal valued at approximately $150 million.

On the downside

Profit taking weighed down shares of Clean Energy Fuels (Nasdaq: CLNE).

Activist investor Bill Ackman said that he would not discuss CSX (NYSE: CSX) at the Ira Sohn conference sending shares of the railroad operator lower.

Investors locked in profits on Spark Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ONCE).
 
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added 5 points to 2114. Bitcoin eased to $238.