August retail sales rose 0.2% to lift the markets to a higher open with the Dow soaring 109 points to 16,480. Nasdaq climbed 26 points to 4,832.

On the upside

Evoke Pharma’s (Nasdaq: EVOK) Phase 3 clinical trial design for EVK-001 is consistent with the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendations.
 
SunEdison (NYSE: SUNE) will begin construction on the a 2.7 megawatt DC community solar project in Massachusetts.
 
GW Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: GWPH) reported positive results from an exploratory Phase 2a clinical trial of Cannabidiol in schizophrenia patients.

On the downside

XenoPort (Nasdaq: XNPT) reported positive results from a Phase 2 clinical trial of its psoriasis treatment XP23829 but the stock price fell.

Sonic (Nasdaq: SONC) reported system-wide same-store sales growth of 7.3% for fiscal 2015 but forecast 2%-4% growth for fiscal 2016.

Shares of Raptor Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RPTP) continued falling.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 gained 8 points to 1,961. Bitcoin held steady at $229.