Dean Foods Dips On Q2 Results; Kinder Morgan Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.35 percent to 16,610.99 while the NASDAQ surged 0.93 percent to 4,411.47. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.60 percent to 1,943.12.

In trading on Monday, financial shares gained by just 0.49 percent. Meanwhile, top decliners in the sector included Central Valley Community Bancorp CVCY, down 6.4 percent, and Walter Investment Management WAC, off 4.7 percent.

Top Headline

The Norwalk, Connecticut-based company posted a quarterly profit of $576.5 million, or $10.89 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $437.3 million, or $8.39 per share. Excluding non-recurring items, Priceline’s adjusted profit rose to $12.51 per share from $9.70 per share. Its total sales rose to $2.12 billion versus $1.68 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $12.06 per share on revenue of $2.14 billion. For the current quarter, Priceline expects adjusted earnings of $19.60 to $21.10 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $21.28 per share.

Equities Trading UP Chiquita Brands International CQB shares shot up 31.41 percent to $13.22 after the Cutrale Group and the Safra Group proposed to acquire Chiquita Brands for $13.00 per share in cash.

Shares of MannKind MNKD got a boost, shooting up 10.95 percent to $9.02 on Afrezza licensing deal.

Kinder Morgan KMI shares were also up, gaining 10.88 percent to $40.05 after the company announced its plans to combine four publicly-traded companies in a deal valued at $70 billion. Kinder Morgan will also raise dividend by 16% to $2.00 per share in 2015.

Equities Trading DOWN

Zynga ZNGA shares tumbled 1.22 percent to $2.85 after falling 1.37% on Friday on weaker-than-expected second-quarter revenue and downbeat revenue forecast for the third quarter.

Gogo GOGO was down, falling 6.06 percent to $15.00 after the company reported a Q2 loss of $0.22 per share on revenue of $99.50 million.

Commodities

Silver traded up 0.17 percent Monday to $19.98, while copper rose 0.16 percent to $3.18.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 jumped 1.37 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.88 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.39 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX jumped 1.90 percent and the French CAC 40 gained 1.20 percent while UK shares climbed 1 percent.

Economics