Gains in durable goods orders and pending home sales boosted the markets to a higher close with the Dow climbing 92 points to 12,627. Nasdaq gained 21 points to 2875.
On the upside
The Food and Drug Administration approved Arena Pharmaceuticals’ (Nasdaq: ARNA) obesity treatment Lorcaserin.
The Financial Times Alphaville blog said that Linde AG may offer up to $3.4 billion for Lincare Holdings (Nasdaq: LNCR).
Moody’s downgraded Arch Coal’s (NYSE: ACI) corporate family rating.
On the downside
Atlantic Power (NYSE: AT) priced its public offering of 5.57 million shares at the discounted price of $12.76 per share.
Shares of AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) fell after competitor O’Reilly Automotive (Nasdaq: ORLY) cut its guidance.
ITG analyst Steve West expects sales growth to slow for Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 11 points to 776.
