Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Dips 5%; Sky-mobi Shares Fall After Q2 Results

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 2.61 percent to 16,029.96 while the NASDAQ slipped 3.04 percent to 4,562.78. The S&P also fell, dropping 2.74 percent to 1,916.93. China’s Shanghai Composite Index dipped 8.49 percent today.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
In trading on Monday, technology shares fell by just 2 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included ChinaCache Internatnl Hldgs Ltd (ADR) CCIH, up 11 percent, and Micron Technology, Inc. MU, up 3 percent.
In trading on Monday, energy shares dipped by 3.6 percent. Top losers in the sector included Bill Barrett Corporation BBG, down 10 percent, and Yanzhou Coal Mining Co Ltd (ADR) YZC, off 10 percent.

Top Headline
Southern Co SO announced its plans to acquire AGL Resources Inc. GAS in a $12 billion deal.
Southern will pay $66 per share in cash for AGL, representing a 38 percent premium over AGL’s closing price of $47.86 on Friday.
Equities Trading UP
AGL Resources Inc. GAS shares shot up 31 percent to $62.90 after Southern Co SO announced its plans to acquire AGL Resources in a $12 billion deal.

Ocata Therapeutics Inc OCAT shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $4.43 after the company reported that it has been awarded a small business innovation research grant from the NIH to develop proprietary Hemangio-derived Mesenchymal Cell product for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and lupus nephritis.

Shares of Hubbell Incorporated (NYSE: HUB-A) got a boost, shooting up 21 percent to $111.50 after the company announced its plans to create a single class of common stock and lifted its share repurchase authorization.
Equities Trading DOWN
Vital Therapies Inc VTL shares tumbled 75 percent to $4.45 after the company reported that topline results of its VTI-208 trial failed to meet the primary endpoint for overall survival. Credit Suisse downgraded Vital Therapies from Outperform to Neutral and lowered the price target from $25.00 to $9.00.
Shares of Netflix, Inc. NFLX were down 4 percent to $99.32. SoftBank Corp SFTBY will exclusively offer a fully integrated Netflix experience, including billing, when Netflix Japan launches on September 2.
Sky-mobi Ltd (ADR) MOBI was down, falling 22 percent to $2.67. Sky-Mobile reported Q2 earnings of $0.00 per share on revenue of $26.5 million.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 5.04 percent to $38.41, while gold traded down 0.13 percent to $1,158.10.
Silver traded down 2.66 percent Monday to $14.94, while copper fell 2.61 percent to $2.24.

Euro zone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 5.27 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index declined 5.04 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 5.54 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX slipped 4.67 percent, and the French CAC 40 dropped 5.53 percent while UK shares fell 4.37 percent.

Economics
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index increased to 0.34 in July, versus a reading of -0.07 in June.