Higher Open On Merger News

Corporate consolidations lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow adding 5 points to 12,442. Nasdaq gained 15 points to 2778.

On the upside

BHP Billiton will pay approximately $12.1 billion in cash to acquire Petrohawk Energy (NYSE: HK).

Activist investor Carl Icahn offered a premium of $10.2 billion to acquire Clorox (NYSE: CLX).

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) impressed with sharply higher second quarter earnings that surpassed analyst expectations by a wide margin.

On the downside

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended accelerated approval for Seattle Genetics' (Nasdaq: SGEN) Adcetris to treat Hodgkin's disease and a type of lymphoma but Canaccord maintained its Sell rating on the biotechnology company saying that narrow restrictions on the drug may limit sales.

Genesis Energy (NYSE: GEL) priced its offering of 7.35 million common units at $26.30 per unit.

Flir Systems (Nasdaq: FLIR) blamed weak demand for issuing a second quarter earnings outlook that fell short of analyst expectations.

In the broad market, advancing issues barely edged out decliners by a slim margin on the NYSE while advancers outpaced decliners by nearly 9 to 7 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 2 points to 825.