Mid-Day Report

The markets surged during the midday in anticipation of another interest rate cut the by Fed. The Dow jumped 268 points to 12,240 while Nasdaq leaped 55 points to 2232.

On the upside

After its shares plummeted yesterday, FCStone Group (Nasdaq: FCSX) issued a statement affirming the soundness of the company and declaring that the risk management firm has no direct exposure to subprime mortgage backed securities.

Shares of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) surged as the two government sponsored enterprised neared a deal with the government to raise more capital.

Standard & Poor's will replace MoneyGram International (NYSE: MGI) on the S&P MidCap 400 with Apollo Investment (Nasdaq: AINV).

On the downside

Nuvelo (Nasdaq: NUVO) ended drug trials of its blood thinner alfimeprase after the medication failed yet another study. The biotechnology company will also eliminate forty jobs.

Xerium Technologies (NYSE: XRM) delayed filing its annual report.

The Food and Drug Administration cited safety concerns for stopping studies for Dynavax's (Nasdaq: DVAX) and Merck's (NYSE: MRK) hepatits vaccine Heplisav.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 8 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks leaped 20 points to 671.