A gain in November pending home sales lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow gaining 20 points to 24,766. Nasdaq rose 5 points to 6,941.
On the upside
Shares of RISE Education Cayman (Nasdaq: REDU) climbed for the fourth day.
XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO) stock continued to rise.
Rising gold prices lifted shares of Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI).
On the downside
Investors locked in profits on Public Joint-Stock Company Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE: MBT).
Profit taking weighed down shares of Corcept Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CORT).
Investors took profits on Macy's (NYSE: M).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added 2 points to 2,682. Bitcoin plummeted $614 to $15,059.