Stocks opened higher as the market tried to rebound. Although the S&P and Nasdaq have held onto their advances, the Dow has given up its gains and is now in negative territory and near session lows. Trade war concerns continue to weigh on the market without any resolution in clear sight. Meanwhile, oil prices moved higher and have held onto their gains ahead of Friday's OPEC meeting. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the current account deficit widened $26.7B to $124.1B in Q1, which was a little less than expected. Existing home sales slipped 0.4% to a rate of 5.43M in May, which was weaker than expected. COMPANY NEWS: Class A shares of 21st Century Fox (FOXA) are up about 7% at midday after Disney (DIS) raised its bid for the assets it had previously agreed to buy from the company to the equivalent of $38 per 21CF share from a prior offer of $28 per share. "The amended and restated Disney merger agreement offers a package of consideration, flexibility and deal certainty enhancements that is superior to the proposal made by the Comcast Corporation (CMCSA) on June 13," Fox stated. A week ago, Comcast came public with its offer to acquire the businesses that 21CF has agreed to sell to Disney for $35 per share in cash. After the latest round of bidding news, Disney shares are flat near noon, while Comcast (CMCSA) Class A shares are fractionally lower... General Electric (GE), an original member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896, will soon be losing that membership after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) will replace GE in the blue chip index effective Tuesday, June 26... Shares of Starbucks (SBUX) are trading 9% lower after the coffee giant announced a set of strategic priorities and operational initiatives to accelerate growth and create long-term shareholder value following recent performance that CEO Kevin Johnson called "not acceptable." Starbucks also cut its Q3 global comparable store sales growth view to 1% from its previous guidance for 3% growth and lowered its FY18 adjusted EPS outlook to $2.39-$2.43 from its previous view of $2.48-$2.53... Amazon (AMZN), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) announced that Atul Gawande, a "surgeon, writer and public health innovator," will be the CEO of their partnership on U.S. employee healthcare. The three corporate giants reiterated that the new joint-venture company will operate as an independent entity "free from profit-making incentives and constraints." MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Intelsat (I), which jumped 23% after RBC Capital analyst Wilton Fry upgraded the stock to Outperform from Sector Perform and raised his price target to $30 from $5, saying the expected FCC release of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking this week will lead to adoption of the company's C-band proposal. Also higher was Synaptics (SYNA), which gained 12% after it confirmed that it is engaged in talks with Dialog Semiconductor (DLGNF) regarding the potential takeover of Synaptics by Dialog. Dialog shares are about 3% lower in New York trading after the news. Among the other noteworthy losers was Oracle (ORCL), which is down 8% at midday after several analysts expressed concern regarding the company's decision to discontinue the disclosure of detailed cloud revenue. Following the company's earnings report, the stock was downgraded at Rosenblatt and Wedbush, while Deutsche Bank analyst Karl Keirstead said he views Oracle's decision to stop disclosing cloud revenue and combine it with on-premise support revenue as a "mistake." Also sliding after its earnings reports last night is FedEx (FDX), which has declined about 1.5%. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was down 31.93, or 0.13%, to 24,668.28, the Nasdaq was up 62.86, or 0.81%, to 7,788.44, and the S&P 500 was up 8.37, or 0.30%, to 2,770.96.
