Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls Over 100 Points; Sprint Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.46 percent to 25,645.74 while the NASDAQ fell 1.49 percent to 7,700.78. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.75 percent to 2,838.10.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose by 0.3 percent on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. - Eletrobras EBR, up 4 percent, and Just Energy Group Inc. JE, up 4 percent.

In trading on Monday, information technology shares fell by 1.7 percent.

Top Headline

International Game Technology PLC IGT reported downbeat results for its first quarter

International Game Technology reported quarterly earnings of $0.12 per share on sales of $1.145 billion. Wall Street analysts expected earnings of $0.24 per share on sales of $1.16 billion.

IGT reaffirmed FY19 adjusted EBITDA guidance of $1.7 billion to $1.76 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. CANF shares shot up 35 percent to $6.94 after the company reported its Phase II Liver Cancer Data was selected for presentation at the International Liver Cancer Association Conference.

Shares of Biocept Inc BIOC got a boost, shooting up 95 percent to $1.60 after the company announced clinical validation and the commercial launch of its target Selector Multi-Gene liquid biopsy panel for lung cancer.

Sprint Corporation S shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $7.53. Sprint and T-Mobile TMUS announced a series of changes to their $26 billion deal. United States regulators are expected to announce agreement on the conditions necessary to approve the merger, Reuters reported. According to latest reports, the Federal Communications Commission will not formally approve the merger on Monday and will need to draft an order, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters. The deal hit a snag in April when the DoJ’s antitrust division expressed concerns with the planned all-stock deal that would combine the nation’s third- and fourth-largest mobile carriers. FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in light of new merger commitments from the two companies, he will “recommend to my colleagues that the FCC approve” the deal.

Equities Trading DOWN

Pinduoduo Inc. PDD shares tumbled 9 percent to $20.75 after the company reported Q1 results.

Shares of Alta Mesa Resources, Inc. AMR were down 23 percent to $0.1357 after a company 10-K filing showed the SEC is probing the company into facts involved in the material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting.

Qudian Inc. QD was down, falling 9 percent to $6.22 after reporting Q1 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1 percent to $62.70, while gold traded up 0.1 percent to $1,276.90.

Silver traded up 0.4 percent Monday to $14.44, while copper fell 0.4 percent to $2.7275.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.06 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.87 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 2.68 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 1.61 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.46 percent while UK shares dropped 0.51 percent.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index fell to a reading of -0.45 in April, compared to revised reading of +0.05 in March.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to speak in Amelia Island, FL at 7:00 p.m. ET.