Markets advance as existing home sales soar

The markets traded higher during the midday with the Dow soaring 152 points to 16,035 as existing home sales surged 14.7% last month. Nasdaq jumped 92 points to 4,564.

On the upside

The North Dakota Public Service Commission approved Energy Transfer Equity’s (NYSE: ETE) proposed 1,150 mile pipeline to transport crude oil through four states to Illinois.

Seaport Global Services upgraded Sanchez Energy (NYSE: SN) yesterday from an Accumulate rating to a Buy rating.

Climbing crude oil prices lifted shares of Williams Companies (NYSE: WMB).

On the downside

Tutor Perini (NYSE: TPC) warned of sharply lower 2015 full year earnings and forecast flat 2016 results.

Wells Fargo downgraded LDR Holding (Nasdaq: LDRH) from an Outperform rating to a Market Perform rating.

Agile Therapeutics (Nasdaq: AGRX) priced its public offering of approximately 5.5 million common shares at the discounted price of $6.35 per share.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 8 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 4 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 soared 29 points to 1,898. Bitcoin tumbled $25 to $386.