Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; KLA-Tencor To Buy Orbotech

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.84 percent to 24,736.04 while the NASDAQ declined 1.14 percent to 7,396.52. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.80 percent to 2,729.99.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the telecommunication services shares gained 0.02 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Mobile TeleSystems MBT, up 3 percent, and Partner Communications Company Ltd. PTNR, up 3 percent.

In trading on Monday, information technology shares fell 1.21 percent.

Top Headline

KLA-Tencor Corp KLAC announced plans to buy Orbotech Ltd ORBK in a $3.4 billion deal.

The offer price of $69.02 per share, comprising $38.86 per share in cash and 0.25 of a share of KLA-Tencor common stock, represents around 15 percent premium over Orbotech's closing price on Friday.

Equities Trading UP

Heron Therapeutics, Inc. HRTX shares shot up 30 percent to $28.00 as the company disclosed that its Phase 3 trial of HTX-011 met all primary and key secondary endpoints.

Shares of Geron Corporation GERN got a boost, shooting up 20 percent to $4.0345. Geron reported Q4 loss of $0.05 per share on sales of $191,000.

Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. RKDA shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $51.20. Arcadia Biosciences reported the official launch of its GoodWheat™ consumer brand.

Equities Trading DOWN

Micro Focus International plc MFGP shares dropped 46 percent to $14.25 after the company reported that Chris Hsu is stepping down as CEO of the company. The company also lowered its 2018 revenue forecast.

Shares of Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. CDTX were down 23 percent to $6.117. Cidara Therapeutics disclosed 'positive' topline results from Phase 2 STRIVE trial of lead antifungal rezafungin.

Universal Display Corporation OLED was down, falling around 10 percent to $111.8022. For the first time ever, Apple Inc. may be looking to design and produce displays for its devices at a secret manufacturing facility in California, Bloomberg reports.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.29 percent to $62.16 while gold traded down 0.01 percent to $1,312.30.

Silver traded down 0.14 percent Monday to $16.25, while copper fell 0.84 percent to $3.0815.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.50 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.38 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.25 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.95 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.59 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.17 percent.

Economics

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