A drop in September consumer confidence weighed the markets down to a lower open with the Dow losing 35 points to 15,365. Nasdaq held steady at 3765.
On the upside
Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) will merge with Tokyo Electron in an all stock deal.
A Seeking Alpha contributor expects Acura Pharmaceuticals' (Nasdaq: ACUR) abuse resistant drugs to expand in market share.
Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners acquire Greenway Medical Technologies (NYSE: GWAY) in an all cash deal valued at approximately $644 million.
On the downside
Cypress Semiconductor (Nasdaq: CY) blamed weakness in its Asian mobile handset revenue for cutting its third quarter revenue and earnings outlook.
Carnival (NYSE: CCL) disappointed with lower third quarter earnings and warned of lower full year revenue.
Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) reported higher second quarter earnings and revenue billings growth disappointed and the company forecast current quarter results below estimates.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 slipped 3 points to 1698.