Higher Open As Building Permits Climb

The markets opened higher with the Dow soaring 105 points to 16,382 despite a drop in February housing starts as building permits climbed 7.7%. Nasdaq leaped 43 points to 4270.

On the upside

The American Heart Journal published an analysis of three research trials using BG Medicine's (Nasdaq: BGMD) BGM Galectin-3® Test saying that the test was significantly predictive of rehospitalization for heart failure.

Sonic (Nasdaq: SONC) reported higher second quarter earnings that topped analyst estimates.

Morgan Stanley upgraded Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) from an Equal Weight rating to an Overweight rating.

On the downside


Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded Himax Technologies (Nasdaq: HIMX) from a Buy rating to an Underperform rating.

MagneGas (Nasdaq: MNGA) entered definitive agreements with an institutional investor for a financing of $5 million.

Arlington Asset Investment (Nasdaq: AI) priced its public offering of 2.75 million common shares at the discounted price of $27.40 per share.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by 7 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 gained 10 points to 1868. Bitcoin eased $0.74 or 0.13%% to $576.27.

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