Mixed open as oil hovers below $49

The markets opened mixed with the Dow rising 23 points to close at 17,450 while Nasdaq lost 10 points to 4,628 as crude oil prices hovered below $49 per barrel.

On the upside

Pilgrim's Pride (Nasdaq: PPC) declared a special cash dividend of $5.77 per share payable on February 17, 2015 to shareholders of record on January 30, 2015.

Target (NYSE: TGT) will close its operations in Canada and has applied for creditor protection for its Canadian business.

Southwestern Energy (NYSE: SWN) priced its upsized offering of more than 26 million common shares at $23 per share.

On the downside

eHealth (Nasdaq: EHTH) warned that fourth quarter revenue would fall short of expectations and that losses would be wider than expected.

BlackBerry (Nasdaq: BBRY) denied that reports that it was in discussion to be acquired by Samsung.

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) reported a strong 2.6% increase in holiday same store sales but the electronics retailer warned of flat or lower revenue for the first half of 2015.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added 2 points to 2014. Bitcoin gained $46 to $214.