Mixed open as crude oil falls

The markets opened mixed with the Dow slipping 5 points to 17,953 while Nasdaq rose 10 points to 4,791 as crude oil prices continued to fall.

On the upside

Merck (NYSE: MRK) will pay a premium of approximately $8.4 billion to buy Cubist Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CBST).

BioLineRx (Nasdaq: BLRX) reported positive data from an ongoing Phase 2a study of its relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia treatment BL-8040.

Shares of Noah Holdings (NYSE: NOAH) continued rising.

On the downside

Prospect Capital (Nasdaq: PSEC) suspended at-the-market equity issuances indefinitely and lowered its monthly cash dividends.

Digital River (Nasdaq: DRIV) extended the deadline for Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) to decide whether Microsoft would extend the expiration date of the Microsoft Operations Digital Distribution Agreement between the two companies.

The Department of Defense extended its surplus property sales contract with Liquidity Services (Nasdaq: LQDT) by two months.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 held steady at 2075. Bitcoin lost $7 to $365.