An unexpected drop in durable goods orders weighed the markets down to a lower open with the Dow falling 43 points to 17,967. Nasdaq dropped 29 points to 4,965.
On the upside
Kraft Foods (Nasdaq: KRFT) will merge with Heinz to create one of the world's largest food and beverage companies with an annual revenue of $28 billion.
Lexmark (NYSE: LXK) will acquire Kofax (Nasdaq: KFX) in a deal valued at approximately $1 billion.
Vascular Biogenics (Nasdaq: VBLT) narrowed losses for the fourth quarter.
On the downside
Apollo Education Group (Nasdaq: APOL) fell to a loss for the second quarter as revenue dropped and enrollment declined.
EnLink Midstream Partners (NYSE: ENLK) priced its secondary offering of 22.8 million common units at the discounted price of $25.71 per unit.
Nationstar Mortgage (NYSE: NSM) priced its offering of 17.5 million common shares.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 4 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by nearly 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 eased a fraction to 2090. Bitcoin slipped $2 to $245.
Durable goods orders unexpectedly drop, markets open lower
March 25, 2015 at 10:43 AM EDT