Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Drop; Mallinckrodt To Acquire Questcor Pharmaceuticals For $5.6B

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.34 percent to 16,357.00 while the NASDAQ declined 0.28 percent to 4,116.01. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.29 percent to 1,859.60.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Monday morning, the utilities sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength Huaneng Power International HNP and AGL Resources GAS. In trading on Monday, cyclical consumer goods & services shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.81 percent. Top decliners in the sector included Sears Holdings SHLD, off 16.6 percent, and World Wrestling Entertainment WWE, down 13.2 percent.

Top Headline
Mallinckrodt MNK announced its plans to acquire Questcor Pharmaceuticals QCOR in a deal valued at around $5.6 billion. Mallinckrodt will buy Questcor for a total consideration of around $86.10 per share. Questcor stockholders will get $30.00 a share in cash and 0.897 of a Mallinckrodt share for every Questcor share.

Equities Trading UP
Questcor Pharmaceuticals QCOR shares shot up 20.62 percent to $81.87 after the company agreed to be bought by Mallinckrodt MNK in a deal valued at around $5.6 billion.

Shares of Agios Pharmaceuticals AGIO got a boost, shooting up 16.61 percent to $41.38 after the company announced initial Phase 1 AG-221 data presented at AACR 2014. JP Morgan upgraded the stock from Neutral to Overweight and raised the price target from $40.00 to $55.00.

UBIC UBIC shares were also up, gaining 24.66 percent to $8.80 after gaining 11.01% on Friday.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Sears Holdings SHLD were down 18.46 percent to $40.94 after the company announced the completion of Lands' End separation.

World Wrestling Entertainment WWE shares tumbled 13.44 percent to $24.25. The company reported that WWE Network is on pace for 1 million subscribers by the end of 2014.

MannKind MNKD was down, falling 11.92 percent to $6.05 after the company announced that the FDA extended PDUFA date for AFREZZA by 3 months.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.76 percent to $100.37, while gold traded down 0.33 percent to $1,299.20.

Silver traded down 0.58 percent Monday to $19.83, while copper rose 0.36 percent to $3.03.

Eurozone
European shares were lower today.

The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.39 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.15 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX tumbled 1.42 percent and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.65 percent while U.K. shares declined 0.66 percent.

Economics
The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills.

Data on consumer credit for February will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.