Mid-Day Market Update: Fred's Surges On $165M Pharmacy Deal With Walgreens; iKang Healthcare Shares Slide

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.01 percent to 25,913.10 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.01 percent to 7,903.49. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.22 percent to 2,877.99.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Monday, the industrial shares rose 0.82 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. EGLE up 8 percent, and The Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. BECN up 8 percent.

In trading on Monday, information technology shares rose by just 0.1 percent.

Top Headline

Science Applications International Corp SAIC announced plans to acquire Engility Holdings Inc EGL for $2.5 billion in an all-stock transaction.

SAIC also reported upbeat results for its second quarter. The company posted quarterly earnings of $1.13 per share on revenue of $ $1.115 billion. However, analysts were expecting loss of $0.99 per share on revenue of $1.11 billion.

Equities Trading UP

NMI Holdings, Inc. NMIH shares shot up 12 percent to $23.70. Barclays initiated coverage on NMI Holdings with an Overweight rating and a $28 price target.

Shares of Tilray, Inc. TLRY got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $88.284. The Supreme Cannabis Company, Inc. signed a supply agreement to provide dried cannabis to Tilray Canada Ltd.

Fred's, Inc. FRED shares were also up, gaining 61 percent to $2.6385. Regional pharmacy chain Fred's and larger rival Walgreens announced that the latter will buy pharmacy patient prescription files and the related pharmacy inventory of 185 Fred's stores located across 10 Southeastern states. Walgreens will pay Fred's $165 million as part of the agreement, subject to adjustment, plus an amount equal to the value of related pharmacy inventory.

Equities Trading DOWN

FTD Companies, Inc. FTD shares dropped 12 percent to $3.203. KLX Energy Services Holdings will replace FTD Companies in the S&P SmallCap 600 on September 18, 2018.

Shares of iKang Healthcare Group, Inc. KANG were down 13 percent to $16.0501 after the company on Friday announced it will re-evaluate a proposed merger between IK Healthcare Investment Limited and IK Healthcare Merger Limited.

Aytu BioScience, Inc. AYTU was down, falling around 18 percent to $3.09 after announcing a proposed $8 million offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.43 percent to $68.04 while gold traded up 0.17 percent to $1,202.40.

Silver traded up 0.32 percent Monday to $14.215, while copper rose 0.29 to $2.63.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.45 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.32 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 2.49 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.24 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.41 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.11 percent.

Economics

The TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index for August is schedule for release at 12:30 p.m. ET.

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