Stocks squeezed out slim gains Monday as concerns about global growth prospects and uncertainty surrounding multi-billion dollar M&A activity contributed to a cautious environment for equities. But attempts to push the market lower were frustrated by strong technical support at the 50-day moving averages in the Dow Industrials and S&P 500, leaving both with only modest gains. The NASDAQ Composite outperformed, led by gains in Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which touched a 19-month high.
In the absence of economic data, the debate on the condition of the U.S. economy was substituted by falling Treasury yields as investors pointed to the continued drop in the yield of the 10-year note as a sign of expectations for slower economic growth. This magnified similar concerns about China after Chinese officials altered their interbank lending requirements to mitigate risks to the banking sector, and by Germany's Bundesbank which adjusted their economic forecasts lower.
In corporate news, Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) reported disappointing earnings and guidance, Astrazeneca (NYSE:AZN) shot-down any chance for a merger with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), AT&T (NYSE:T) offered $48.5 billion for DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) and Google acquired Divide and reportedly made a $1 billion offer for Twitch.
Here's Where The Markets Stood At The Close
US MARKETS
- Dow Jones Industrial Index was up 20 points (+0.1%) at 16,511
- S&P 500 was up 7 points (+0.4%) at 1,885
- Nasdaq Composite Index was up 35 points (+0.9%) at 4,125
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
- FTSE 100 was down 0.16%
- Nikkei 225 was down 0.64%
- Hang Seng Index was down 0.04%
- Shanghai China Composite Index was down 1.05%
UPSIDE MOVERS
- (+)SBSA Launches mega brand FM station In Los Angeles
- (+)INFN CFO purchased 25,000 shares
- (+)IMI SanDisk (SNDK) and Toshiba took an exclusive license in its intellectual property
- (+) ITMN Leerink upgrades to Outperform after positive clinical drug data
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
- (-)LOCK Temporarily suspended its Wallet mobile application and is deleting the data from its servers
- (-)AZN Rejected Pfizer's (PFE) $120 billion offer
- (-)ATK Downgraded to Neutral by Goldman Sachs, price target cut 18%
After Hours Stock News From Midnight Trader.
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