Chinese economic concerns weigh down markets

Concerns that China's economy has slowed weighed the markets down to a lower open with the Dow slipping 15 points to 17,264. Nasdaq fell 20 points to 4,559.

On the upside

ChinaNet Online (Nasdaq: CNET) won the Best Company in Chinese Entrepreneurial SME Business Development Marketing at the 2014 Chinese e-Commerce Industry Gateway Conference in Beijing.

Merck will pay a premium of approximately $17 billion in cash to buy Sigma-Aldrich (Nasdaq: SIAL).

SeeThruEquity lifted its price target on Net Element (Nasdaq: NETE) from $3.47 to $5.17 per share.

On the downside

Shares of ITT Educational Services (NYSE: ESI) extended its losses.

Carbo Ceramics (NYSE: CRR) warned of lower third quarter ceramic proppant sales as potential clients switched to sand.

Robert W. Baird downgraded InvenSense (NYSE: INVN) from an Outperform rating to a Neutral rating.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 lost 5 points to 2004. Bitcoin added $6 to $394.