On The Fly: Top stock stories for Monday

Stocks opened little changed and moved in a narrow trading range during the morning as the equities market was undecided which direction to take. The bond market helped it decide, as the 10-year bond yield reached its highest level since January 2014 at just about 3%. By afternoon, stocks were decidedly lower as each of the major averages moved to their session lows, though they recovered to narrow their losses. The S&P finished little changed as investors braced for the next round of earnings reports in what will be a busy week of reporting. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., Markit's preliminary April manufacturing PMI rose 0.9 points to 56.5, which was better than the expected 55.2 reading. Markit's flash services PMI came in at 54.4, topping the 54.1 consensus and leaving the composite PMI flash reading at 54.8. Existing home sales rose 1.1% to a rate of 5.60M units in March, beating expectations. The Chicago Fed national activity index fell to 0.10 in March from a revised reading of 0.98 for February. In Asia, Japan's flash manufacturing PMI ticked up to 53.3 in April from 53.1 in March. In Europe, the flash manufacturing PMI came in at 56, versus the consensus call of 56.1, the services PMI came in at 55, versus the Street at 54.6, and the composite PMI reading of 55.2 topped the consensus estimate of 54.8. COMPANY NEWS: Toymaker Hasbro (HAS), hampered by the liquidation of Toys "R" Us among other headwinds, reported first quarter adjusted earnings and revenue that missed already depressed expectations. Hasbro shares initially reacted negatively, falling in pre-market trading, before rebounding to close the day with a gain of 4%. Rival toymaker Mattel (MAT), meanwhile, advanced 6%... Shares of Box (BOX) surged 11% after Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya named the stock as his 2018 Sohn pick. Speaking at this year's conference, Palihapitiya said he believes Box can generate an "enormous amount of value" over the coming years, seeing the company's artificial intelligence revenue making up over 90% of its gross margin. He added that he thinks Box's core business is "unbelievably stable" and believes it will benefit from AI adoption... Deutsche Bank (DB) was in focus after Bloomberg reported that the bank is weighing significant cuts to its cash equities business in the U.S. as part of a wider overhaul of its investment bank business. A decision on the matter could comes as soon as this week, according to Bloomberg. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was McDermott (MDR), which rose 16% after it confirmed that it rejected an unsolicited takeover offer from Subsea 7. Also higher was The Stars Group (TSG), which gained 14% after it agreed to acquire Sky Betting & Gaming from CVC Capital Partners and Sky plc (SKYAY) in a cash and stock transaction valued at $4.7B. Among the notable losers was Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI), which fell over 8% after Subsea 7's rejected proposal to acquire the entire issued share capital of McDermott for $7 per share was subject to the termination of McDermott's pending transaction with CB&I. Also lower was Akorn (AKRX), which plunged 34% after Fresenius (FSNUY) terminated its agreement to acquire the company. Additionally, Prothena (PRTA) plummeted 69% after it discontinued development of NEOD001 for AL amyloidosis as the Phase 2b PRONTO study did not meet its primary or secondary endpoints. INDEXES: The Dow fell 14.25, or 0.06%, to 24,448.69, the Nasdaq lost 17.52, or 0.25%, to 7,128.60, and the S&P 500 edged up 0.15, or 0.01%, to 2,670.29.