The markets opened higher with the Dow rising 22 points to 16,485 over the Federal Reserve's cautious approach to its tapering program. Nasdaq gained 9 points to 4175.
On the upside
Intercept Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ICPT) ended a FLINT trial early due to highly significant improvement in liver histology.
Capstone Turbine (Nasdaq: CPST) received multiple orders from E-Finity Distributed Generation for micro urbines totaling 6.4MW of electric power.
Sangamo Biosciences (Nasdaq: SGMO) will collaborate with Biogen Idec (Nasdaq: BIIB) to develop therapeutics for hemoglobinopathies.
On the downside
Aeterna Zentaris (Nasdaq: AEZS) priced its public offering of 11 million units at $1.20 per unit.
Investors locked in profits on Plug Power (Nasdaq: PLUG).
Deutsche Bank downgraded Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) from a Buy rating to a Hold rating.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added 3 points to 1841. Bitcoin lost $35.00 or 3.94% to $888.00.