Stocks rose Tuesday, with major benchmarks on track for quarterly gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37 points, or 0.2%, to 17108. The S&P 500 added four points, or 0.2%, to 1982, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose six points, or 0.1%, to 4512. Stocks had fallen earlier in the session following disappointing economic reports. Still, investors appeared willing to look past Tuesday's data going into the third-quarter earnings season, said Bill Nichols, head of U.S. equities at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Shares of micro cap Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: CPRX) are up 15% on good volume in response to its report of positive results in a Phase 3 trial of Firdapse (amifampridine phosphate tablets equivalent to 10 mg amifampridine) for the treatment of patients with Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome.

The USPTO issues patent No. 8,846,635 to Can Fite Biopharma Ltd (ADR)(NYSEMKT: CANF) covering its product candidate CF102 for the treatment of liver regeneration and function following liver surgery. The patent, entitled "Method for inducing hepatocyte proliferation and uses thereof" was granted earlier in Japan and Europe.

A 365-patient Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of Acasti Pharmaceuticals' (NASDAQ: ACST) CaPre (highly purified omega-3 concentrate from krill oil) for the treatment of patients with hypertriglyceridemia met all primary and secondary endpoints. The trial was a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, dose-ranging study designed to assess CaPre's safety and efficacy in reducing triglyceride levels in patients with mild-to-severe hypertriglyceridemia taking daily doses of 1 gram or 2 grams of CaPre or placebo over a 12-week period. Approximately 90% of the patients had baseline triglycerides between 200 and 499 mg/dL. The remainder had triglycerides between 500 and 877 mg/dL.

TheStreet's Editor-In-Chief Janet Guyon writes an extensive rebuttal to an article published on September 27 by the Washington Post's Steven Pearlstein where he accuses Adam Feuerstein of being in bed with short sellers regarding Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc(NASDAQ: NWBO). In short, he accuses AF of securities fraud.

Actavis plc (NYSE: ACT) will report Q3 results on November 5 before the open. The conference call will begin at 8:00 am ET.Consensus view is EPS of $3.09 on revenues of $3.61B.