Sluggish European manufacturing data coupled with light profit-taking pressure snapped a six-day winning streak on Wall Street with the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 drifting into the red and the NASDAQ Composite managing a very late push to end just in positive territory. Although Wall Street was unable to generate another challenge to record highs despite bullish U.S. economic data, any attempts to push equities sharply lower were mitigated by a minor retreat in energy prices and another active day in the M&A market.
The Markit Purchasing Manager's Index for June edged higher to 57.5 to a 4-year high, from 56.4 in April and beating expectations for a slight gain to 56.5. The components of the index, including output and employment, showed improvement in June as well.
Also, the National Association of Realtors reported a 4.9% increase in the sale of existing homes to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 4.89 million. The street was expecting a smaller gain of 1.9% to 4.75 million units. In addition, April was revised upward to 4.66 million from 4.65 million prior.
Finally, the Chicago Fed index measuring overall economic activity and related inflationary pressures rose 0.21 in May, reversing a -0.32 index the month prior.
Monday's mergers included multi-billion dollar deals between Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and MICROS Systems (NASDAQ:MCRS), White Energy Company (ASX:WEC) and Integrys Energy Group (NYSE:TEG) and Avago Technologies' (NASDAQ:AVGO) for PLX Technologies. Also General Electric (NYSE:GE) was another step closer to acquiring Alstom's Alstom (PARIS:ALSO) power and grid businesses after the French company's board unanimously approved GE's offer.
Here's Where The Markets Stood At The Close
US MARKETS
- Dow Jones Industrial Index was down 9 points (-0.1%) at 16,937
- S&P 500 was down 0.2 point (-0.01%) at 1,962
- NASDAQ Composite Index was up 0.6 point (+0.02%) at 4,368
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
- FTSE 100 was down 0.36%
- Nikkei 225 was up 0.13%
- Hang Seng Index was down 1.68%
- Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.11%
UPSIDE MOVERS
- (+) TGD Sells common shares at steep discount to select investors
- (+) AGRX Contraceptive patch patent extension
- (+) TEG To be bought by Wisconsin Energy (WEC) for $9.1 billion
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
- (-) MTOR Joint venture between ZF Friedrichshafen AG and Meritor Transmission Corporation have entered a settlement agreement with Eaton Corporation plc. (ETN).
- (-) CBMG Sells common shares at steep discount to select investors
- (-) PRKR Judge rules in favour of Qualcomm (QCOM) in Patent infringement case
After Hours Stock News From Midnight Trader.
Copyright © 2014 MT Newswires, a Division of MidnightTrader, Inc.