Higher Open Even As Housing Starts Drop

The markets opened higher with the Dow climbing 84 points to 16,215 as investors attributed a sharp drop in January housing starts to freezing weather conditions throughout most of the country. Nasdaq slipped 4 points to 4267. 

On the upside 

Signet Jewelers (NYSE: SIG) will pay a premium of approximately $690 million to buy Zale (NYSE: ZLC).

The Food and Drug Administration approved Chelsea Therapeutics’ (Nasdaq: CHTP) low blood pressure treatment Northera.

Mexican regulators approved Oculus Innovative Sciences’ (Nasdaq: OCLS) Microcyn60® Oral Care family of products for treating mouth and throat infections.

On the downside

SM Energy (NYSE: SM) reversed year ago losses to post a profit for the fourth quarter but the results fell far short of analyst expectations. 

Falling steel prices weighed down shares of U.S. Steel (NYSE: X).

Potbelly (Nasdaq: PBPB) fell to a loss for the fourth quarter.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 10 to 9 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by nearly 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 rose 4 points to 1845. Bitcoin added $4.35 or 1.64% to $265.00.

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