Produce prices rose 0.4% in May to lift the markets to a higher open with the Dow gaining 49 points to 17,724. Nasdaq rose 7 points to 4,851.
On the upside
An upcoming article in the June 21 edition of the Journal of American Medical Association that appeared to put Exact Sciences' (Nasdaq: EXAS) Cologuard DNA colon cancer screening test on par with colonoscopy was leaked online.
Aegerion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AEGR) will merge with QLT (Nasdaq: QLTI).
Cellectar Biosciences (Nasdaq: CLRB) reported positive results from a preliminary tumor-targeting study of CLR 1602.
On the downside
Carbylan Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CBYL) entered a share purchase agreement with KalVista Pharmaceuticals in which KalVista shareholders would become the majority owners of Carbylan.
Scorpio Bulkers (NYSE: SALT) priced its public offering of 20 million common shares at the discounted price of $3.05 per share.
Investors locked in profits on Leading Brands (Nasdaq: LBIX).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 gained 5 points to 2,081. Bitcoin slipped $1 to $679.