The markets opened lower with the Dow slipping 13 points to 17,639 as the Eurozone grew at a sluggish pace in the third quarter. Nasdaq lost 9 points to 4,670.

On the upside

Geron (Nasdaq: GERN) entered a license and collaboration agreement with Janssen Biotech to develop and commercialize Geron's telomerase inhibitor imetelstat.

Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI) confirmed that it had discussions with Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) for a possible merger.

Pandora (Nasdaq: P) chairman and chief executive Brian McAndrew bought 25,000 shares of company stock.

On the downside

Shares of Plug Power (Nasdaq: PLUG) extended its losses.

Hertz Global (NYSE: HTZ) must restate financial results for 2011, 2012 and 2013.

EnLink Midstream Partners (NYSE: ENLK) priced its public offering of 10.5 million common units at the discounted price of $28.37 per unit.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by more than 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 eased a fraction to 2038. Bitcoin lost $18 to $396.