Lower Open As Germany's Business Climate Falls

September 24, 2012 at 10:42 AM EDT

A drop in Germany's business climate weighed the markets down to a lower open with the Dow losing 48 points to 13,531. Nasdaq fell 23 points to 3156.
On the upside
Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) will settle a patent infringement suit by paying more than $250 million to TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO).
Credit Suisse lifted its price target on International Paper (NYSE: IP) from $40 to $44.
Digital River (Nasdaq: DRIV) will pay approximately $102.8 million in cash to acquire LML Payment Systems (Nasdaq: LMLP).
On the downside
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PPHM) discovered major discrepancies in a Phase II trial of its lung cancer treatment bavituximab conducted by a third party.
The federal government launched an investigation into the marketing practices of Questcor Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: QCOR).
Barron's wrote over the weekend that Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) was only worth $15.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 3 to 2 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks slipped 2 points to 852.