Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Tivity Health To Acquire Nutrisystem

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.08 percent to 24,195.06 while the NASDAQ declined 0.01 percent to 6,963.53. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.66 percent to 2,615.67.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the communication services shares slipped by just 0.04 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Partner Communications Company Ltd PTNR up 6 percent, and Glu Mobile Inc. GLU up 8 percent.

In trading on Monday, financial shares fell 1.8 percent.

Top Headline

NutriSystem Inc. NTRI confirmed Monday morning it has agreed to sell itself to Tivity Health Inc TVTY, a provider of fitness and health improvement programs, in a cash and stock transaction.

Tivity will pay Nutrisystem shareholders $38.75 per share in cash in addition to 0.2141 Tivity Health shares for each share of Nutrisystem common stock. The transaction implies an enterprise value of $1.3 billion and an equity value of $1.4 billion, or around $47 per share. The deal implies a 30 percent premium based on the volume-weighted average price for Nutrisystem's stock over the past five trading sessions.

Equities Trading UP

Xperi Corporation XPER shares got a boost, shooting up 43 percent to $18.25 after the company raised its Q4 forecast and reported a settlement and new patent license agreement with Samsung Co.

Shares of Nutrisystem, Inc. NTRI shot up 28 percent to $43.73 after Tivity Health, Inc. TVTY announced plans to acquire Nutrisystem for $47 per share in cash and stock.

Veritone, Inc. VERI shares were also up, gaining 20 percent to $6.76 after receiving an acquisition offer from Apis Capital Management for $10.26 per share in cash.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

Tivity Health, Inc. TVTY shares dropped 33 percent to $27.08 after the company announced plans to acquire Nutrisystem, Inc. NTRI for $47 per share in cash and stock.

Shares of MacroGenics, Inc. MGNX were down 27 percent to $12.06 after reporting partial clinical hold on MGD009 Phase 1 studies.

Marine Products Corporation MPX was down, falling around 12 percent to $19.35. B. Riley FBR downgraded Marine Products from Neutral to Sell and lowered the price target from $19 to $16.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.77 percent to $51.68 while gold traded down 0.2 percent to $1,250.10.

Silver traded down 0.55 percent Monday to $14.615, while copper fell 0.62 percent to $14.615.

 

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.58 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.59 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.53 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.41 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.3 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.4 percent.

Economics

U.S. job openings increased to 7.08 million for October, from 6.96 million, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS report.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index for November will be released at 12:30 p.m. ET.