Higher open as oil continues rising

The markets opened higher with Dow rising 36 points to 17,995 as crude oil prices continued to advance. Nasdaq rose 4 points to 4,979.

On the upside

Shares of Voltari (Nasdaq: VLTC) continued soaring.

Excel Trust (NYSE: EXL) will be acquired by Blackstone Property Partners (NYSE: BX) in an all cash deal valued at approximately $2 billion.

General Electric (NYSE: GE) will sell most of its financial business, GE Capital, in order to focus on its industrial manufacturing business.

On the downside

Extreme Networks (Nasdaq: EXTR) reported preliminary third quarter results that fell short of previous guidance and announced the resignation of chief revenue officer Jeff White.

Citrix Systems (Nasdaq: CTXS) warned that first quarter earnings and revenue would miss its prior forecast prompting a downgrade.

unique (Nasdaq: QURE) priced its follow-in public offering of 3 million common shares at the discounted price of $29.50 per share.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 3 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 rose 5 points to 2096. Bitcoin lost $6 to $234.