Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up 1%; Minerva Neurosciences Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.09% to 26742.75 while the NASDAQ fell 0.23% to 8,013.82. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.08% to 2,948.04.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares gained 0.4% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Seabridge Gold Inc. SA, up 8%, and Gold Resource Corporation GORO, up 7%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 0.7%.

Top Headline

Eldorado Resorts Inc ERI will acquire Caesars Entertainment Corporation CZR in a cash-and-stock transaction of $17.3 billion. Caesars is one of the world's largest gambling companies and has had a number of offers, including Golden Nugget, Tilman Fertitta's casino company and Boyd Gaming Corp.

Carl Icahn, who owns a 9.8% stake in Caesars , has commented he is "pleased" Eldorado will merge with Caesars. Back in January, Icahn pushed for Caesars to consider strategic alternatives.

Separately, VICI Properties Inc VICI announced it will acquire the land of three casino properties from Eldorado Resorts for $3.2 billion..

Equities Trading UP

Minerva Neurosciences Inc NERV shares shot up 44% to $6.08. Minerva announced results of a Phase 2b study that evaluated its seltorexant, codenamed MIN-202, in patients with insomnia disorder that met the primary endpoint of demonstrating a highly statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement on Latency to Persistent Sleep, or LPS, at night 1. The key secondary point as defined as Wake After Sleep Onset over first 6 hours at Night 1 showed improvement after treating with 10mg and 20mg of the pipeline asset. Minerva noted that multiple secondary endpoints also showed improvement compared to placebo as well as the current standard-of-care Ambien.

Shares of PCM Inc PCMI got a boost, shooting up 44% to $35.00 after Insight Enterprises, Inc. NSIT announced plans to acquire PCM for $35 per share.

VivoPower International PLC VVPR shares were also up, gaining 145% to $2.50, after the company announced new international parties have engaged in the company's solar portfolio sale. The company also announced additional contracts relating to solar farms and data centers.

Equities Trading DOWN

The Peck Company, Inc. PECK shares tumbled 28% to $8.02 after falling 34.9% on Friday.

Shares of 360 Finance, Inc. QFIN were down 20% to $11.03 after the company announced a proposed follow-on public offering of 7.5 million American depositary shares.

Pier 1 Imports, Inc. PIR was down, falling 33% to $7.61 after dropping 23.5% on Friday. Pier 1 Imports announced a 1-for-20 reverse stock split Wednesday to regain compliance with New York Stock Exchange listing standards. The company’s board of directors formally authorized a 1-for-20 reverse stock split of Pier 1’s common stock effective Thursday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $57.99, while gold traded up 1.4% to $1,419.30.

Silver traded up 0.8% Monday to $15.41, while copper rose 0.1% to $2.7065.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.25%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.38%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.49%. Meanwhile, the German DAX slipped 0.53%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.12% while UK shares rose 0.12%.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index increased to a reading of -0.05 in May, versus a revised reading of -0.48 in the prior month.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index fell to -12.1 in June, versus reading of -5.3 in May.