Strong auto sales lift markets

Strong auto sales lifted the markets during the midday with the Dow rising 32 points to 18,067. Nasdaq gained 11 points to 5,094.

On the upside

Zions Bancorp (Nasdaq: ZION) will restructure in order to improve profitability metrics prompting upgrades.

Halcon Resources (NYSE: HK) chief executive Floyd Wilson purchased one million shares of company stock.

Bloomberg reported that AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) would consider acquiring a pharmaceutical company similar to Juno Therapeutics (Nasdaq: JUNO).

On the downside

Shares of Puma Biotechnology (NYSE: PBYI) continued falling.

Regulus Therapeutics (Nasdaq: RGLS) president and chief executive Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos has resigned.

Jeffries downgraded Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM) from a Hold rating to an Underperform rating and cut its price target from $33 to $29.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added 3 points to 2115. Bitcoin rose $2 to $225.