The markets opened sharply lower with the Dow plunging 113 points to 15,019 as the government shutdown entered its third day. Nasdaq fell 22 points to 3792.
On the upside
Galena Biopharma (Nasdaq: GALE) launched its sublingual fentanyl tablet Abstral for cancer pain management.
Cowen & Co. upgraded Vivus (Nasdaq: VVUS) from a Market Perform rating to an Outperform rating and lifted its price target from $13.50 to $19.
Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD) reported a 1.9% increase in September same store sales.
On the downside
Angie's List (NYSE: FLTX) cut its membership prices.
Whitestone REIT (NYSE: WSR) priced its public offering of 4 million common shares at the discounted price of $13.54 per share.
A Seeking Alpha contributor expects Molycorp (NYSE: MCP) production to fall short of expectations.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 dropped 13 points to 1680.
