NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks charged ahead Wednesday morning, as investors welcomed falling oil prices, big merger news in the drug and media sectors, and a batch of strong quarterly earnings.

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 30.66 to 10,742.88, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 index (up 3.87 to 1,270.73, Charts) and the Nasdaq composite (up 8.02 to 2,273.27, Charts) all added 0.2 percent or more.

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Investors reacted Wednesday morning to a slew of deal news, as well as the latest batch of earnings.

Boston Scientific (down $0.10 to $23.90, Research) said Wednesday morning that it was buying Guidant (unchanged at $76.78, Research) in a $27.2 billion cash and stock deal that ends a two-month bidding war with rival suitor Johnson & Johnson (up $1.53 to $60.89, Research).

Both Boston Scientific and Guidant shares slipped in the early going, while J&J shares rose.

Walt Disney (up $0.20 to $26.19, Research) said late Tuesday that it is buying Pixar (Research) in a $7.4 billion deal. Speculation that the media conglomerate might buy its partner had run rampant on Wall Street over the last few weeks.

Disney shares were little moved in the early going, while Pixar shares jumped.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (up $0.25 to $21.58, Research) was among the companies reporting earnings Wednesday. The drugmaker reported earnings of 31 cents per share, up from a year ago and beyond Wall Street's forecasts.

Shares were barely higher at the open.

The existing home sales and weekly oil inventories reports were due soon after the opening bell.

Oil prices continued to erode. U.S. light crude oil for March delivery fell 61 cents to $66.45 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices fell, raising the yield on the 10-year note to about 4.43 percent from 4.39 percent late Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar was little changed against the euro and rallied versus the yen.

COMEX gold jumped $6 to $564.10 an ounce.

In global trade, major Asian markets ended little changed, and European markets rose at midday.

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