Fly Intel: Wall Street's top stories for Monday

Stocks opened lower and spent most of the day in negative territory. The Dow and S&P stayed in a narrow range with modest losses, but the Nasdaq was hit hardest as investors rotated out of the technology sector. Trade wars remain a headwind for the overall market and the technology group has been hit particularly hard, despite a report stating that Apple (AAPL) smart watches and fitness monitors would be exempt from the latest round of tariffs on China. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the Empire State manufacturing index dropped 6.6 points to 19.0 in September. In trade news, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that President Trump plans to announce new tariffs of about $200B on Chinese imports, but at a rate of about 10%, which is below the 25% that has previously been threatened. On Sunday, The Journal said that China is not pleased with the pressure tactics and is considering declining an offer for a new round of trade talks, while some Chinese advisors suggest putting restrictions on sales of materials and equipment key to U.S. manufacturers' supply chains. This morning, Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow said at the Economic Club in New York that an announcement on China tariffs is likely to come soon. Bloomberg later reported that Trump said an announcement on China will come after the market close. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were in focus after CEO Elon Musk tweeted this weekend that the company is now in "delivery logistics hell" and claimed that Tesla will now perform most collision repairs in-house. Also, reports indicated that a fire broke out at the company's Nevada Gigafactory this weekend, but was quickly contained. Additionally, aspiring Tesla rival Lucid Motors announced that it has executed a $1B+ investment agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia through a special-purpose vehicle wholly owned by PIF... Coca-Cola (KO) is monitoring the nascent cannabis drinks industry and is in talks with Canadian marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis (ACBFF) to develop the drinks, Bloomberg reported... The Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice has cleared Cigna's (CI) proposed acquisition of Express Scripts (ESRX). Following the news, Express Scripts gained 3.7% while Cigna rose 1.4%. In addition, shares of Aetna (AET), which has agreed to merge with CVS Health (CVS), closed 1% higher after the announcement... Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration will spare a number of technology products from its next round of tariffs on Chinese goods, including the Apple Watch and AirPods headphones. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Wabtec (WAB), which rose 7% after it filed an amended preliminary proxy statement with the SEC that said the company and GE (GE) Transportation are progressing their proposed transaction toward an anticipated closing by Q1. Also higher was Teva (TEVA), which gained 2.5% after its Ajovy injection for the treatment of migraines received FDA approval. Among the notable losers was Government Properties (GOV), which fell 25% after it agreed to merge with Select Income REIT (SIR). Shares of Select Income REIT jumped 8% after the news. Also lower was Nutanix (NTNX), which fell 11.5% after The Information reported that Google Cloud (GOOG) is testing devices for private data centers. INDEXES: The Dow fell 92.55, or 0.35%, to 26,062.12, the Nasdaq lost 114.25, or 1.43%, to 7,895.79, and the S&P 500 declined 16.18, or 0.56%, to 2,888.80.