A drop in August manufacturing activity weighed the markets down to a lower open with the Dow tumbling 75 points to 13,015. Nasdaq fell 12 points to 3054.
On the upside
Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) will pay a premium of approximately $2.6 billion in cash to acquire Medicis Pharmaceutical (NYSE: MRX).
StemCells (Nasdaq: STEM) reported upbeat interim results from a Phase I/II clinical trial of its chronic spinal cord injury treatment HuCNS-SC(R).
Heckmann (NYSE: HEK) will merge with privately held environmental services firm Power Fuels.
On the downside
Zalicus (Nasdaq: ZLCS) began the first of two Phase 2a clinical trials of its chronic neuropathic pain treatment Z160. Dahlman Rose downgraded Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR) from a Buy to a Hold rating.
Shares of (Nasdaq: NFLX) dropped after Amazon's (Nasdaq: AMZN) multi-year agreement with Epix more than doubled the available titles for its Amazon Prime Instant Video service.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by more than 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a fraction to 811.
Lower Open As Manufacturing Activity Drops
September 04, 2012 at 10:47 AM EDT
