Amazon's expansion into the retail grocery business sent the markets down to a lower open with the Dow losing 21 points to 21,338. Nasdaq fell 20 points to 6,144.
On the upside
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) will pay a premium of approximately $13.7 billion to acquire Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFM).
Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage of Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) with an Overweight rating and an $18.00 price target.
Finisar (Nasdaq: FNSR) reported sharply higher fourth quarter earnings as revenue climbed and announced plans to ship tens of millions of 3D sensors.
On the downside
Goldman Sachs downgraded Kroger (NYSE: KR) from a Buy rating to a Neutral rating.
Shares of Target (NYSE: TGT) and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) tumbled on news of Amazon's (Nasdaq: AMZN) proposed acquisition of Whole Foods (Nasdaq: WFM).
The Justice Department is investigating Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) for its accounting practices.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of more than 6 to 5 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 lost 5 points to 2,426. Bitcoin rose $18 to $2441.
