Sales of new single family homes climbed to a five year high to lift the markets to a higher open with the Dow gaining 73 points to 14,733. Nasdaq rose 10 points to 3331.
On the upside
The New York State Department of Health conditionally approved CombiMatrix's (Nasdaq: CBMX) chromosomal microarray analysis test for miscarriage analysis.
A surge in April home prices lifted shares of PulteGroup (NYSE: PHM).
Pandora Media (NYSE: P) announced that its internet radio service has more than 2.5 million unique users and is now available in over 100 car models.
On the downside
Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) reported higher third quarter earnings and revenue but the results fell short of analyst expectations.
Mitek Systems (Nasdaq: MITK) priced its public offering of approximately 2.85 million common shares at the discounted price of $5.25 per share.
Fourth quarter losses more than doubled for Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 5 to 2 on the NYSE by nearly 7 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index gained 7 points to 1580.
