Mid-Afternoon Market Update: WebMD Health Climbs On Acquisition News; Hasbro Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.20 percent to 21,536.24 while the NASDAQ gained 0.26 percent to 6,404.33. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.06 percent to 2,471.00.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed by 0.28 percent in the US market on Monday. Top gainers in the sector included LNB Bancorp Inc LNBB, and Union Bankshares, Inc. UNB.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares fell 0.61 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Genie Energy Ltd GNE, down 4 percent, and York Water Co YORW, down 4 percent.

Top Headline

Halliburton Company HAL posted stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

Halliburton posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.23 per share, on revenue of $4.96 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.18 per share on sales of $4.86 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Scientific Games Corp SGMS shares shot up 27 percent to $34.15 as the company reported stronger-than-expected Q2 results.

Shares of WebMD Health Corp. WBMD got a boost, shooting up 20 percent to $66.00 after the company confirmed Monday morning it has agreed to sell itself to the private equity giant KKR for $66.50 per share in cash. The transaction values WebMD at $2.8 billion and represents a premium of approximately 20 percent based on Friday's closing price of $55.19.

Neuroderm Ltd NDRM shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $38.38. Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation agreed to acquire NeuroDerm for $39 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Hibbett Sports, Inc. HIBB shares dropped 32 percent to $13.43 after the company issued a weak forecast for the second quarter.

Shares of TearLab Corp TEAR were down 17 percent to $2.77 after climbing 89.77 percent on Friday.

Hasbro, Inc. HAS was down, falling around 10 percent to $104.63. Hasbro posted Q2 earnings of $0.53 per share on sales of $972.5 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.22 percent to $46.33 while gold traded up 0.04 percent to $1,261.50.

Silver traded up 0.05 percent Monday to $16.465, while copper rose 0.75 percent to $2.743.

Eurozone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.24 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.19 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.59 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.25 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.20 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.01 percent.

Economics

The IHS Markit flash manufacturing PMI climbed to 53.2 in July, versus a reading of 52 in June. Economists expected a reading of 52 for July.

Existing-home sales dropped 1.8 percent in June to an annual rate of 5.52 million. However, economists were projecting a rate of 5.58 million.