The Dow Jones Industrial Average is 293 points higher midday, thanks in part to upbeat earnings from Microsoft.

Biotech stocks advanced in the week ending Nov. 26, as a late-week surge on the back of news about a new COVID-19 variant helped mitigate the losses notched earlier in the holiday-shortened week.

Shares of Aeroclean jumped on their first day of Nasdaq trading in a slow week for IPOs. The company said it expects to use proceeds to fund production of its air purification devices, to support the build-out of its organization, and more.