The markets opened higher with the Dow climbing 86 points to 14,659 as Cyprus finalized details of its bailout. Nasdaq gained 24 points to 3263.
On the upside
Nasdaq OMX Group (Nasdaq: NDAQ) will pay approximately $750 million in cash to acquire the Treasury trading platform eSpeed from BGC Partners (Nasdaq: BGCP).
Shares of Humana (NYSE: HUM) UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) continued rising after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said yesterday that benefits for Medicare Advantage customers will increase by more than 3% per person.
Activist investor Carl Icahn acquired a 9.3% stake in Nuance Communications (Nasdaq: NUAN).
On the downside
Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) reported a lower than expected March passenger revenue per available seat mile increase of only 2%.
Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope downgraded Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) to a Sell rating.
Nordic American Tankers (NYSE: NAT) priced its follow-on offering of 9.75 million common shares at the discounted price of $9.60 per share.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index gained 8 points to 1570.
