Stocks opened in negative territory, taking their lead from overseas markets, which fell on concerns surrounding Turkey's economic crisis. U.S. banks may have little exposure to the Turkish lira, but European banks do and worries about a ripple effect hurt the financial sector. The averages pared their losses during the morning hours but by the end of the day, the Dow was down by nearly 1% and the other averages weren't far behind in terms of percentage losses. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the headline Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% in July, with the core rate also up 0.2%, as expected. In Europe, the lira plunged and contagion spread to euro-area lenders after the Financial Times said that the ECB is becoming concerned about the exposure of some of the region's banks. Adding to the pressure was President Donald Trump's tweet that he authorized a doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminum with respect to Turkey, to 50% for steel and 20% for aluminum. In energy news, Baker Hughes reported that the U.S. rig count is up 13 rigs from last week to 1,057. COMPANY NEWS: Tesla (TSLA) was in focus today after CNBC reported yesterday that the car maker's board of directors plans to meet with financial advisors next week to formalize a process to explore CEO Elon Musk's proposal to take the company private. Notably, the board will likely tell Musk to recuse himself as the car maker prepares to review his proposal and has informed him that he needs his own set of advisors, according to CNBC. Additionally, Reuters said that Tesla's board indicated that Musk has "addressed the funding" for the potential go-private deal. Bloomberg later reported that Tesla is seeking a wide investor pool for the go-private plan and is holding early talks with banks about it, though no decision has been made... Qualcomm (QCOM) reached a mutually agreed settlement with the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission, or TFTC, resolving the TFTC's investigation of Qualcomm and Qualcomm's litigation challenging the TFTC's decision alleging violations of Taiwan's Fair Trade Act... Meanwhile, Alnylam (ALNY) shares were halted for trading ahead of the announcement that the FDA approved the company's Onpattro to treat polyneuropathy caused by hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis. After the company confirmed the approval in a statement, Alnylam president Barry Greene told Bloomberg that the company can't make heart claims for Onpattro, but will work with the FDA to get broader claims for the drug... Shares of General Electric (GE) were 1.3% lower after Bloomberg reported that the company is working with Credit Suisse (CS) on a potential sale of its power-conversion business, formerly known as Converteam. The unit could fetch roughly $1.5B, Bloomberg said, noting that the price would be below the $3.2B that GE paid for the assets in 2011. GE's advisers may reach out to Caterpillar (CAT), Schneider, and ABB (ABB), according to Bloomberg. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Overstock.com (OSTK), which rose 7.9% after it said that GSR Capital will invest up to $374.55M in tZERO. Also higher were Trade Desk (TTD) and Universal Display (OLED), which gained a respective 37.1% and 13.5% after reporting quarterly results. Among the notable losers was Dropbox (DBX), which slipped 9.8% after reporting quarterly results and announcing that Dennis Woodside is stepping down as COO. Also lower after reporting quarterly results were Endologix (ELGX) and Sunrun (RUN), which fell 36.9% and 7.3%, respectively. INDEXES: The Dow fell 196.09, or 0.77%, to 25,313.14, the Nasdaq lost 52.67, or 0.67%, to 7,839.11, and the S&P 500 declined 20.30, or 0.71%, to 2,833.28.
