The markets opened sharply lower with the Dow tumbling 100 points to 16,365 as crude oil prices fell and consumer spending eased less than 0.1% in December. Nasdaq rocketed 107 points to 4,613.
On the upside
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) will pay a premium of approximately $5.8 billion in cash to acquire Alere (NYSE: ALR).
The Information reported that Marc Andreesen and private equity firm Silver Lake have explored a potential deal with Twitter (NYSE: TWTR).
Trovagene (Nasdaq: TROV) entered an agreement to provide its Precision Cancer Monitoring tests and services to FedMed clients.
On the downside
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) won a patent dispute with Samsung but the additional revenue to be collected may not be as high as expected.
Retreating crude oil prices weighed down shares of Denbury Resources (NYSE: DNR).
Goldman Sachs upgraded Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU) from a Sell rating to a Neutral rating but the price target was lowered from $13 to $11.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 tumbled 15 points to 1,924. Bitcoin slipped a fraction $377.