Stocks opened slightly lower but almost immediately gained downside momentum. The market looked as if it would see a continuation of yesterday's selloff but by mid-day, it had found a level where it moved in a narrow range. The market pared its losses and the S&P and Nasdaq moved back into positive ground while the Dow moved to within just a few ticks from a full comeback. When news broke that Chief White House strategist Steve Bannon resigned, the market began to struggle once again and limped into the close, sliding into negative territory. ECONOMIC NEWS: In the U.S., consumer sentiment sentiment surged 4.2 points to 97.6 in the August preliminary read from the University of Michigan survey, much better than expected. In addition, the U.S. QSS figures that track activity for the service sector revealed a 6.2% Q2 year-over-year gain in the aggregate "selected services" measure that was similar to last quarter's 6.3% gain. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Deere & Company (DE) slipped 5.5% despite reporting better-than-expected quarterly earnings and raising its revenue guidance for fiscal 2017. Following the quarterly report, however, Baird analyst Mig Dobre downgraded the stock to Neutral from Outperform, citing quarterly results that were below his expectations as the pace of margin improvement lagged his forecast... On the other side, shares of Calpine (CPN) jumped 10.4% after it agreed to be acquired by Energy Capital Partners for $5.6B. Energy Capital, along with a consortium of investors led by Access Industries and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, will acquire the company for $15.25 per share in cash, which represents a roughly 51% premium to Calpine's unaffected share price of $10.07 per share on May 9, 2017... Meanwhile, Gap (GPS) shares were in focus after the retailer reported better-than-expected quarterly results, including a 1% year-over-year gain in comparable sales for the quarter. The comapny also raised its adjusted earnings per share view for fiscal 2017. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers were Ross Stores (ROST) and Applied Materials (AMAT), which rose 10.7% and 2.7%, respectively, after reporting quarterly results. Also higher was Tenet Healthcare (THC), which surged 14.2% after two of the company's directors announced their immediate resignation, citing "irreconcilable differences." Among the noteworthy losers was Infosys (INFY), which slipped 7.1% in New York after it announced the resignation of Vishal Sikka as chief executive officer. Commenting on the matter, the Infosys board said that founder N.R. Murthy's "continuous" attacks on the board and management drove Sikka's resignation. Also lower was Foot Locker (FL), which dropped about 28% after reporting weaker-than-expected quarterly results. Shares of rival Finish Line (FINL) fell 8.2% after the news. INDEXES: The Dow fell 76.22, or 0.35%, to 21,674.51, the Nasdaq lost 5.39, or 0.09%, to 6,216.53, and the S&P 500 declined 4.46, or 0.18%, to 2,425.55.
