On The Fly: Top stock stories for Wednesday

Stocks opened in positive territory, with the Dow significantly outperforming the other major averages due to the strength in IBM (IBM), which jumped following its better than expected Q3 report. IBM's post-earnings advance helped push the index back above 23,000 and this time the move above the round number held, unlike yesterday when the market was unable to close above that milestone level. While the Dow was strong all day, the Nasdaq and S&P lagged and finished nearly unchanged. ECONOMIC NEWS: In the U.S., housing starts fell 4.7% to a 1.127M rate in September. In Federal Reserve news, the central bank's Beige Book said that growth was moderate to modest in all 12 Districts, as expected. Labor markets were "widely described as tight" and labor shortages in certain sectors were also "restraining" business growth. The majority of districts continued to describe wage pressures as modest to moderate, the Fed noted. COMPANY NEWS: The Dow's sharp gains today were led by IBM, whose shares added nearly 9% after the company reported better than expected results for the third quarter, including a 20% year-over-year boost in Cloud revenues. In addition, the company reaffirmed its adjusted earnings guidance for fiscal 2017 and said it continues to expect free cash flow in FY17 to be relatively flat year to year... Shares of Anthem (ANTM) rallied over 2% after the company said it is establishing a new pharmacy benefits manager to be named IngenioRx, which will begin offering a full suite of PBM solutions starting in 2020. Following the announcement, CVS Health (CVS) said that it signed a five-year agreement with Anthem to provide services to support IngenioRx. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Spectrum Pharmaceuticals (SPPI), which jumped 36% after the company announced the oral presentation of interim data from a Phase 2 clinical study evaluating poziotinib in the treatment of a specific type of non-small-cell lung cancer. Also higher was Ignyta (RXDX), which gained 13% after its investigational drug entrectinib demonstrated a 78% confirmed objective response rate in a recent trial of cancer patients. MobileIron (MOBL) was among the noteworthy losers, dipping 6.5% after the company reported lower than expected preliminary Q3 results and announced that CEO Barry Mainz will leave the company. Also lower was Supervalu (SVU), which dropped nearly 12% after reporting quarterly earnings and announcing it agreed to acquire Associated Grocers of Florida in a $180M deal. INDEXES: The Dow rose 160.16, or 0.7%, to 23,157.60, the Nasdaq gained 0.56, or 0.01%, to 6,624.22, and the S&P 500 advanced 1.90, or 0.07%, to 2,561.26.