Housing starts soared 11.3% in December but the markets opened flat with the Dow slipping 2 points to 19,801 ahead of the inauguration of president elect Donald Trump. Nasdaq rose 15 points to 5,571.
On the upside
Rumors circulated that outgoing Canadian Pacific Railway (NYSE: CP) chief executive Hunter Harrison may be headed to CSX (Nasdaq: CSX).
Ocular (Nasdaq: OCLR) raised its second quarter revenue forecast.
Catabasis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CATB) published positive results from a Phase 1 study of its Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment edasalonexent in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
On the downside
DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) announced a 1-for-8 reverse stock split.
Rent-A-Center (Nasdaq: RCII) reported a sharp 14% drop in fourth quarter same store sales at its Core U.S. stores and warned that revenue would fall short of previous guidance.
Goldman Sachs downgraded GNC Holdings (NYSE: GNC) from a Neutral rating to a Sell rating.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 9 to 7 on the NYSE and by more than 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index edged up a fraction to 2,272. Bitcoin gained $16 to $885.