The markets opened lower with the Dow slipping 18 points to 17,628 ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting. Nasdaq lost 6 points to 5,025.
On the upside
Ctrip.com International (Nasdaq: CTRP) swapped shares with Baidu (Nadaq: BIDU) to acquire a 45% stake in Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR).
Bridgestone will pay a premium of approximately $835 million in cash to acquire Pep Boys (NYSE: PBY).
The Food and Drug Administration approved the chronic pain treatment BELBUCA which uses BioDelivery Sciences’ (Nasdaq: BDSI) patented BioErodible MucoAdhesive drug delivery technology.
On the downside
Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) from a Neutral rating to an Underperform rating and slashed its price target from $4.00 to $1.00.
Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) extended its losses.
Investors locked in profits on Cirrus Logic (Nasdaq: CRUS).
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 lost 5 points to 2,069. Bitcoin held steady at $283.