Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of long-distance network operator Level 3 Communications (Nasdaq: LVLT) jumped to at least level 4 today, gaining as much as 21.7% before falling back to a still-impressive 9% boost -- all on heavy trading volumes.

So what: Level 3 already jumped once this week, as the company closed its stock-swap acquisition of Global Crossing and announced a $1.35 billion program to buy back most of Global Crossing's debt. Today, the rally continues as analyst firm FBR Capital Markets says that Level 3 really should outbid Windstream's (NYSE: WIN) existing $820 million offer to buy broadband service provider PAETEC (Nasdaq: PAET).

Now what: So this is speculation, and investors clearly agree with PBR's theory that Level 3 and PAETEC belong together. I'm not so sure. The Global Crossing buyout still doesn't make sense to me because it simply made Level 3 bigger and not more efficient -- PAETEC would be more of the same. But hey, Level 3 shares have presented an 11% market return since the Global Crossing deal was announced, versus a 15% drop in the DJIA (INDEX: ^DJI). Let's just see if that goodwill stays around when the company starts to report combined results in a quarter or two. I remain a skeptic.

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