Courtesy of Benzinga.
Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.66 percent to 16,304.32 while the NASDAQ declined 0.79 percent to 4,095.19. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.66 percent to 1,852.77.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Monday morning, the utilities sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength Huaneng Power International (NYSE: HNP) and Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais SA (NYSE: CIG). In trading on Monday, cyclical consumer goods & services shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 1.25 percent.
Top decliners in the sector included Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD), off 18 percent, and World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE), down 21 percent.
Top Headline
Mallinckrodt (NYSE: MNK) announced its plans to acquire Questcor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: QCOR) in a deal valued at around $5.6 billion. Mallinckrodt will buy Questcor for a total consideration of around $86.10 per share. Questcor stockholders will get $30.00 a share in cash and 0.897 of a Mallinckrodt share for every Questcor share.
Equities Trading UP
Questcor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: QCOR) shares shot up 16.91 percent to $79.35 after the company agreed to be bought by Mallinckrodt (NYSE: MNK) in a deal valued at around $5.6 billion.
Shares of Agios Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AGIO) got a boost, shooting up 24.72 percent to $44.25 after the company announced initial Phase 1 AG-221 data presented at AACR 2014. JP Morgan upgraded the stock from Neutral to Overweight and raised the price target from $40.00 to $55.00.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) shares were also up, gaining 1.80 percent to $26.63 after Pacific Crest upgraded the stock from Sector Perform to Outperform.
Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) were down 19.06 percent to $40.64 after the company announced the completion of Lands’ End separation.
World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE) shares tumbled 20.59 percent to $22.25. The company reported that WWE Network is on pace for 1 million subscribers by the end of 2014.
MannKind (NASDAQ: MNKD) was down, falling 11.19 percent to $6.10 after the company announced that the FDA extended PDUFA date for AFREZZA by 3 months.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.58 percent to $100.55, while gold traded down 0.57 percent to $1,296.10.
Silver traded down 0.58 percent Monday to $19.83, while copper rose 0.48 percent to $3.04.
Eurozone
European shares were lower today.
The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.61 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.84 percent.
Meanwhile, the German DAX tumbled 1.96 percent and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.08 percent while U.K. shares declined 1.10 percent.
Economics
Data on consumer credit for February will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.
Posted-In: Earnings News Guidance Eurozone Futures Forex Global Econ #s Economics Intraday Update Markets Movers Tech
