The markets opened higher with the Dow gaining 29 points to 20,944 even as Congress holds hearings on President Trump's wiretapping claims. Nasdaq rose 13 points to 5,914.
On the upside
The Food and Drug Administration confirmed that Esperion Therapeutics' (Nasdaq: ESPR) LDL-C lowering program was adequate to support approval of an LDL-C lowering indication for bempedoic acid.
Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR) reported positive results from the SUMMIT-07 Phase 3 efficacy study of NKTR-181.
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch upgraded FireEye (Nasdaq: FEYE) from a Neutral rating to a Buy rating.
On the downside
Cerulean Pharma (Nasdaq: CERU) will eliminate 11 employees, sell some of its assets and enter a stock purchase agreement with Dare Biosciences.
DryShips (Nasdaq: DRYS) completed its $200 million common stock offering.
Aevi Genomic Medicine (Nasdaq: GNMX) reported disappointing results from the SAGA trial of AEVI-001 to treat adolescents with mGluR mutation positive ADHD.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index added a point to 2,379. Bitcoin gained $7 to $1,053.
