Rising crude oil prices and an eminent government shutdown weighed the markets down to a lower open with the Dow easing a point to 12,408. Nasdaq slipped a point to 2794.
On the upside
Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) will split into two publicly traded companies, travel site TripAdvisor and online travel company Expedia.
Seagate (NYSE: STX) announced its first quarterly dividend of 18 cents per share payable on June 1 to shareholders of record May 2.
Shares of Horizon Lines (NYSE: HRZ) continued rising after agreeing yesterday to pay $1.77 million to settle a lawsuit with the Puerto Rican government.
On the downside
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice both launched investigations into Hercules Offshore (Nasdaq: HERO).
Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL) and US Airways (NYSE: LCC) increased roundtrip airline fares again by $10.
Idenix Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: IDIX) priced its public offering of 18.31 million common shares at $2.80 per share.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by nearly 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a fraction to 849.
