A surge in building permits lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow rising 31 points to 17,822. Nasdaq added a point to 5,031.

On the upside

The Food and Drug Administration has agreed to allow Aerie Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AERI) to change the primary endpoint range of its second Phase 3 registration trial of Rhopressa.

Coty (NYSE: COTY) will acquire the beauty assets of Proctor & Gamble (NYSE: PG).

The European Patent Office granted a patent to Great Basin Scientific (Nasdaq: GBSN) for its on-chip amplification technology which is currently patented in the U.S.
 
On the downside

A small study of Avalanche Biotechnologies’ (Nasdaq: AAVL) age-related chronic eye disease treatment AVA-101 achieved its safety goal but demonstrated only modest vision improvement.

Shares of National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG) continued falling.

Oshkosh (NYSE: OSK) blamed bad weather for cutting its full year profit forecast.
 
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE while advancers barely edged out decliners by a slim margin on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 rose 2 points to 2087. Bitcoin added $2 to $239.