December consumer confidence rose more than expected to 113.7 to lift the markets to a higher open with the Dow rising 37 points to 19,971. Nasdaq climbed 41 points to 5,504.
On the upside
Bargain hunters lifted shares of OvaScience (Nasdaq: OVAS).
Shares of Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) climbed for the tenth day.
Fitbit (NYSE: FIT) was the second most downloaded free app for the iPhone on Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) App Store over the weekend.
On the downside
The Food and Drug Administration placed a clinical hold on several Phase 1 trials of Seattle Genetics' (Nasdaq: SGEN) vadastuximab talirine to treat acute myeloid leukemia.
Endologix (Nasdaq: ELGX) temporarily halted shipments of its AFX Endovascular AAA System to investigate a manufacturing issue.
DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) entered a $200 million stock purchase agreement with Salani Investments.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index gained 8 points to 2,272. Bitcoin surged $35 to $920.
