Retail sales barely edged up 0.1% in April but the markets opened higher with the Dow gaining 33 points to 16,729. Nasdaq rose 6 points to 4,150.
On the upside
First quarter earnings slipped for Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX) but the results were better than expected and the company forecast current quarter revenue ahead of estimates.
Halozyme (Nasdaq: HALO) widened first quarter losses but the company announced that the Data Monitoring Committee now supported continued enrollment of patients in clinical trials for PEGPH20.
Telik (Nasdaq: TELK) will merge with MabVax Therapeutics.
On the downside
Elizabeth Arden (Nasdaq: RDEN) widened first quarter losses as revenue fell and the cosmetics company hired Goldman Sachs to explore strategic alternatives.
ExamWorks Group (NYSE: EXAM) priced its public offering of more than 3.09 million common shares at the discounted price of $33.90 per share.
First quarter earnings plunged for magicJack VocalTec (Nasdaq: CALL).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by nearly 7 to 5 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 rose 4 points to 1901. Bitcoin slipped $3.16 or 0.73% to $435.66.
