Upbeat earnings sent the markets soaring to a sharply higher open with the Dow jumping 231 points to 20,995. Nasdaq climbed 36 points to 6,020.
On the upside
Catabasis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CATB) announced favorable results across multiple functional assessments in the MoveDMD trial for edasalonexent to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Supervalu (NYSE: SVU) reported sharply higher fourth quarter earnings that topped analyst estimates.
Capricorn Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CAPR) announced positive six month safety and efficacy results from a randomized Phase I/II HOPE clinical trial of CAP-1002 to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
On the downside
Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX) said that its largest client, Anthem, will not renew its contract when it expires at the end of 2019.
First quarter earnings for Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) fell short of expectations prompting the world's largest gold miner to cut its output outlook for its gold mine in Argentina.
ContraVir Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CTRV) priced its public offering at the discounted price of $1.00 per unit.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 4 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index climbed 14 points to 2,388. Bitcoin gained $14 to $1262.
