February retail sales climbed a better than expected 1.1% to lift the markets to a sharply higher close with the Dow rocketing 217 points to 13,177. Nasdaq leaped 56 points to 3039.
On the upside
A Seeking Alpha contributor suggested that Acadia Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ACAD) had great upside potential.
Omeros (Nasdaq: OMER) reported upbeat results from a late stage clinical trial of its postoperative eye pain treatment OMS302.
Nautilus (NYSE: NLS) reported higher fourth quarter earnings that nearly doubled as revenue rose.
On the downside
Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) forecast 2013 earnings and revenue that fell short of analyst expectations.
Two Crown Castle International (NYSE: CCI) directors and three executives all sold company stock.
A Seeking Alpha contributor wrote that Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) was overvalued.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 7 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks leaped 16 points to 831.
