Mid-Day Market Update: Dover Downs Gaming Surges Following Merger Agreement With Twin River Worldwide; Halliburton Shares Drop

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.03 percent to 25,050.46 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.12 percent to 7,829.24. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.10 percent to 2,804.75.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Monday, the financial shares climbed 1.18 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. LX up 8 percent, and PPDAI Group Inc. PPDF up 7 percent.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares fell 0.82 percent.

Top Headline

Hasbro, Inc. HAS reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Hasbro posted quarterly profit of $0.48 per share, on revenue of $904.5 million. Analysts projected earnings of $0.31 per share on revenue of $840.11 million.

Equities Trading UP

Dover Downs Gaming & Entertainment, Inc. DDE shares shot up 51 percent to $3.054 after the company and Twin River Worldwide Holdings disclosed a merger agreement.

Shares of LifePoint Health, Inc. LPNT got a boost, shooting up 35 percent to $64.70 after the company announced Monday its $5.6-billion sale to Apollo Global Management LLC APO’s RCCH Healthcare Partners. The buyout price, $400 million less than what Reuters had reported Friday, represents a 36-percent premium to LifePoint’s Friday closing price.

Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RETA shares were also up, gaining 41 percent to $65.34 after reporting positive Phase 2 data for bardoxolone.

Equities Trading DOWN

PetMed Express, Inc. PETS shares dropped 13 percent to $35.00 after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its first quarter.

Shares of Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc. BBGI were down 15 percent to $9.00 after the company filed for a 1.3 million share offering.

Halliburton Company HAL was down, falling around 8 percent to $41.70 following Q2 results. Halliburton posted Q2 earnings of $0.58 per share on sales of $6.147 billion.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.51 percent to $68.61 while gold traded down 0.49 percent to $1,234.30.

Silver traded down 0.89 percent Monday to $15.41, while copper fell 0.42 to $2.7445.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.19 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.01 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.87 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.10 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.37 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.30 percent.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to a reading of 0.43 in June, versus a reading of -0.45 in May.

U.S. existing home sales fell 0.6 percent to an annual rate of 5.38 million for June.