Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 2%; Veritone Shares Jump

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.34 percent to 24,306.62 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.40 percent to 6,997.05. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.25 percent to 2,626.56.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday afternoon, the information technology shares climbed 1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Xperi Corporation XPER up 47 percent, and Veritone, Inc. VERI up 22 percent.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 2 percent.

Top Headline

NutriSystem Inc. NTRI confirmed Monday morning it has agreed to sell itself to Tivity Health Inc TVTY, a provider of fitness and health improvement programs, in a cash and stock transaction.

Tivity will pay Nutrisystem shareholders $38.75 per share in cash in addition to 0.2141 Tivity Health shares for each share of Nutrisystem common stock. The transaction implies an enterprise value of $1.3 billion and an equity value of $1.4 billion, or around $47 per share. The deal implies a 30 percent premium based on the volume-weighted average price for Nutrisystem's stock over the past five trading sessions.

Equities Trading UP

Xperi Corporation XPER shares got a boost, shooting up 47 percent to $18.82 after the company announced a settlement of all litigation against Samsung and reported a new patent license agreement between the two companies. Xperi also raised FY18 and Q4 billings guidance.

Shares of Nutrisystem, Inc. NTRI shot up 28 percent to $43.79 after Tivity Health, Inc. TVTY announced plans to acquire Nutrisystem for $47 per share in cash and stock.

Veritone, Inc. VERI shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $6.88 after receiving an acquisition offer from Apis Capital Management for $10.26 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Tivity Health, Inc. TVTY shares dropped 33 percent to $27.09 after the company announced plans to acquire Nutrisystem, Inc. NTRI for $47 per share in cash and stock.

Shares of MacroGenics, Inc. MGNX were down 23 percent to $12.58 after reporting partial clinical hold on MGD009 Phase 1 studies.

Axovant Sciences Ltd. AXON was down, falling around 26 percent to $1.25 after the company disclosed that it did not meet its primary endpoint for its Phase 2 study of nelotanserin.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.03 percent to $51.54 while gold traded down 0.26 percent to $1,249.40.

Silver traded down 0.59 percent Monday to $14.61, while copper fell 1.36 percent to $2.722.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.87 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 1.76 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.77 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 1.54 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.47 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.8 percent.

Economics

U.S. job openings increased to 7.08 million for October, from 6.96 million, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS report.