Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Weatherford To Sell Engineered Chemistry, Drilling Fluid Operations to Berkshire's Lubrizol

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.43 percent to 17,752.45 while the NASDAQ declined 0.85 percent to 4,751.09. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.61 percent to 2,055.01.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the healthcare shares slipped by just 0.01 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Almost Family AFAM, Cardiome Pharma CRME, and Amedisys AMED.

In trading on Monday, telecommunications services shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 1.30 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Allot Communications ALLT, down 4.9 percent, and TIM Participacoes S.A. TSU, off 5 percent.

Top Headline

Weatherford International plc WFT announced its plans to sell engineered chemistry and drilling fluid operations to Berkshire's Lubrizol for $825 million in cash plus earnout potential.

The transaction is likely to close before year end 2014.

Equities Trading UP

21Vianet Group VNET shares shot up 5.05 percent to $19.77 after the company reported a $296 million investment from Kingsoft, Xiaomi and Temasek.

Shares of ON Semiconductor ONNN got a boost, shooting up 5.54 percent to $9.53 after the company announced a $1 billion buyback plan.

Groupon GRPN shares were also up, gaining 2.52 percent to $7.72 after Bank of America upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy and raised the price target from $8 to $9.50.

Equities Trading DOWN

POZEN POZN shares tumbled 17.55 percent to $7.33 after the company and Sanofi SNY US mutually agreed to terminate US partnership for PA8140/PA32540.

Shares of Energy XXI EXXI were down 12.97 percent to $3.49 after dropping 36.65% on Friday.

Exelixis EXEL was down, falling 14.46 percent to $1.42 after the company announced top-line results from the final analysis of COMET-2.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.14 percent to $66.24, while gold traded up 0.25 percent to $1,178.40. Silver traded up 1.66 percent Monday to $15.82, while copper fell 0.32 percent to $2.84.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.45 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.73 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.49 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 0.34 percent and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.40 percent while UK shares fell 0.93 percent.

Economics

The final reading of Markit manufacturing PMI gained to 54.80 in November, versus a prior reading of 54.70. However, economists were expecting a reading of 55.00.

The ISM manufacturing composite index slipped to 58.70 in November, versus a prior reading of 59.00. However, economists were expecting a reading of 58.00.

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

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Posted In: EarningsNewsGuidanceEurozoneFuturesCommoditiesContractsEcon #sIntraday UpdateMarkets
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