Higher open despite flat retail sales

The markets opened higher with Dow gaining 52 points to 18,120 despite flat April retail sales. Nasdaq climbed 28 points to 5,004.

On the upside

Williams Cos. (NYSE: WMB) will acquire Williams Partners (NYSE: WPZ) in an all stock deal valued at approximately $13.8 billion.

Gevo (Nasdaq: GEVO) narrowed losses for the first quarter as revenue surged.

Downloads of One Horizon Group's (Nasdaq: OHGI) Aishuo smartphone app surpassed 3 million.

On the downside

ResMed (NYSE: RMD) reported disappointing results from a Phase III trial of its sleep apnea treatment Adaptive Servo-Ventilation therapy.

Takeda Pharmaceutical has informed Orexigen Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OREX) that Takeda will end their collaboration agreement.

DuPont (NYSE: DD) shareholders rejected all four board nominees submitted by activist investor Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 7 to 3 on the NYSE and by 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 gained 7 points to 2106. Bitcoin added $1 to $242.