Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; SiriusXM To Buy Pandora For $3.5B

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.45 percent to 26,623.17 while the NASDAQ declined 0.31 percent to 7,962.25. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.34 percent to 2,919.84.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the energy shares rose 1.79 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included California Resources Corporation CRC up 14 percent, and EP Energy Corporation EPE up 11 percent.

In trading on Monday, consumer staples shares fell 0.87 percent.

Top Headline

Sirius XM Holdings Inc SIRI will round out its 15-percent stake in Pandora Media Inc P by acquiring all remaining shares for $3.5 billion in stock.

By unanimous board approval, Pandora shareholders will receive 1.44 newly issued SiriusXM shares for each Pandora share. The merger of the music industry’s largest distribution platforms creates the biggest audio entertainment company in the business. The new company expects to yield $7 billion in pro forma revenue in 2018.

Equities Trading UP

Amarin Corporation plc AMRN shares shot up 228 percent to $9.80 after the company's REDUCE-IT cardiovascular study of Vascepa in LDL-C patients met its primary endpoint.

Shares of AzurRx BioPharma, Inc. AZRX got a boost, shooting up 34 percent to $3.5448 after the company's Phase IIa trial of MS1819-SD for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency met its primary endpoints.

Intrexon Corporation XON shares were also up, gaining 26 percent to $18.22 after announcing advances in development of its microbial platform to produce cannabinoids for medical uses.

Equities Trading DOWN

Altimmune, Inc. ALT shares dropped 46 percent to $14.06. Altimunne reported a $4.9 million common stock offering. Altimmune reported that it has been awarded additional $2.5 million in BARDA funding to support nasoshield development.

Shares of Astrotech Corporation ASTC were down 37 percent to $3.52. Astrotech posted a Q4 loss of $0.63 per share on sales of $45,000.

New Age Beverages Corporation NBEV was down, falling around 21 percent to $4.88 after reporting a $50 million at-the-market offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.18 percent to $72.32 while gold traded up 0.28 percent to $1,204.70.

Silver traded down 0.13 percent Monday to $14.34, while copper rose 0.14 to $2.8615.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.42 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.32 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.53 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.57 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.29 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.28 percent.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to a reading of 0.18 for August, versus prior reading of 0.13. However, economists were expecting a reading of 0.02.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.