The markets opened mixed with the Dow adding 19 points to 10,339 while Nasdaq slipped 6 points to 2183 despite merger and acquisition activity as investors remain wary of the sluggish economy.
On the upside
IBM (NYSE: IBM) will pay approximately $480 million to acquire marketing services company Unica (Nasdaq: UNCA).
Dynegy (NYSE: DYN) agreed to be acquired by Blackstone Group for approximately $542.7 million.
In a deal valued at approximately $890 million, SeaDrill will purchase Allis-Chalmers (NYSE: ALY).
On the downside
Genetech informed PDL BioPharma (Nasdaq: PDLI) that some of its drugs do not infringe on PDL's patents in Europe. Genentech has been paying royalties to PDL.
Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) reported higher second quarter earnings but investors were disappointed with the retailer's full year guidance.
National CineMedia (Nasdaq: NCMI) priced its public offering of 10.7 million common shares at $16.00 per share.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 7 to 5 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by more than 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a point to 615.
