A gain in the Conference Board's index of leading economic indicates lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow gaining 44 points to 16,587. Nasdaq rose 10 points to 4,164.
On the upside
The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency has adopted a positive opinion of PTC Therapeutics' (Nasdaq: PTCT) nonsense mutation Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment Translarna. Shares of Prosena Holding (Nasdaq: RNA), which is developing a DMD treatment, also rose.
Piper Jaffray said that Isis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ISIS) has the most attractive pipeline among biotechnology firms.
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) reported higher second quarter earnings and announced additional job cuts between 11,000 to 16,000.
On the downside
Aruba Networks (Nasdaq: ARUN) narrowed losses for the third quarter but JPMorgan said that margins fell short of expectations.
Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) widened losses more than expected for the first quarter and forecast a greater than expected loss for the second quarter prompting a downgrade.
Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) narrowed losses for the first quarter but revenue fell.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by nearly 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added 4 points to 1896. Bitcoin rose $6.65 or 1.26% to $527.04.
