Stock Market News Today: Why the Dow Soared 322 Points

The biggest stock market news today stemmed from the surging Dow Jones Industrial Average, wh ich climbed more than 300 points today.

All sectors were up today. The S&P 500 closed up about 2.18%, or 36.12 points, at 1,692.52, and the Do w ended up 2.18%, or 322.64 points, at 15,125.62.

After several consecutive days of losses, the stock market enjoyed a healthy rebound today as investors took comfort in political moves toward an agreement on the government shutdown and a temporary hike of the debt ceiling.

In what ended as the second-best stock market day so far this year, investors assumed a more positive outlook on the economy as House Republicans proposed a temporary resolution to the budget stalemate that has triggered the federal shutdown, now in its second week. The proposed solution is to temporarily hike the debt ceiling with no other restrictions attached.

As stocks welcomed a rally, gold futures sank. Gold futures closed below $1,3 00 an ounce today, which is the lowest closing price all month. December gold shed $10.30 per ounce to close at $1,296.90.

"The appetite for risk in today's markets flies in the face of all investors learned in 2008-2009, and gold is paying a costly price for a current blindness to downside circumstances that hide in the distance," Jonathan Citrin, founder and executive chairman at CitrinGroup, told MarketWatch. "Surging markets still hold the limelight, with inflation and geopolitical unrest an afterthought."

Among the companies with stock making strides today: Gilead Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD ), iCAD (Nasdaq: ICAD ), and Vonage Holdings (NYSE: VG).

In healthcare, Gilead Sciences Inc. rose 6.52% to $62.74 a share, climbing as hi gh as $62.80 after the drugmaker said it was ending phase III testing of its idelalisib drug candidate. It said interim analysis found the drug worked extremely well in improving progression-free survival in patients with previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

And iCAD shares climbed 18.8% at $6.95 in a sharp afternoon rally after positive data using the company's Xoft Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy System to treat non-melanoma skin cancer were presented Tuesday to the American Society of Radiation Oncology.

Now for a huge winner in tech...

In technology stock market news today, Vonage Holdings Corp. closed up 16.07% to $3.54 afte r it agreed to acquire privately held Vocalocity, an industry-leading provider of communication services to sma ll and medium businesses.

Vonage will acquire Vocalocity for $130 million, including $105 million in cash and $25 million in Vonage common stock.

If you're holding these stocks, here's why they missed today's stock market surge...

Bucking the overall market rally, Citrix Systems (Nasdaq: CTXS) shares fell 11.82% to $58.78. The stock is weighed by the company's preliminary third-quarter results. Citrix says it will report third-quarter non-generally accepted accounting procedures earnings per share of $0.68 to $0.69, versus the Street estimate of $0.73. The company's prior guidance was for between $0.72 and $0.73.

And, after a strong session yesterday on positive projections by Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) shares were down about 1.24% to $22.32 to day as analysts offered a more dismal view of the company's future earnings. Whitman had said the company expects pockets of growth for the year ahead ; however, J.P. Morgan analysts disagree, maintaining a neutral rating on the HPQ.

Now for today's top investing story: The S&P 500's Point of "No Return"