Stocks opened little changed and the market appeared tired after the recent two-week rally. The market dipped in the opening hour of trading, despite optimism surrounding the first trade talks between the U.S. and China since both sides called a truce on the tariff war. An OPEC report said the Saudi's were cutting their oil exports to help lift the price of crude back to the $80 level. The report lifted equities as well and pushed the averages to gains of roughly 1%. The averages pared their gains in the final hour of trading, but still extended the recent rally into its third week.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the ISM nonmanufacturing index dropped 3.1 points to 57.6 for December after a surprise 0.4 point uptick to 60.7 in November.
COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Dollar Tree (DLTR) rose 5.5% after Starboard Value announced it has taken a 1.7% stake in the company and is pushing for changes, including exploring a sale of Family Dollar and raising certain prices beyond $1, and nominated a slate of director candidates for election at the company's annual meeting. In response, the company said it looks forward to the opportunity to engage with Starboard.
In M&A news, Eli Lilly (LLY) announced a definitive agreement to acquire Loxo Oncology (LOXO) for $235 per share in cash, or approximately $8B. Loxo shares closed up 66% at $232.65 following the deal announcement, while Lilly finished the day with a fractional advance to $115.35 per share.
Samsung Electronics (SSNLF) announced on Sunday that it will offer iTunes Movies and TV Shows and Apple (AAPL) AirPlay 2 support on 2019 Samsung Smart TV models beginning this spring.
Meanwhile, Nvidia (NVDA) shares rose about 5% after it announced the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 for gamers on Sunday.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Luxoft (LXFT), which surged 82% to $57.67 after it agreed to be acquired by DXC Technology (DXC) for $59 per share in cash. Also higher was Roku (ROKU), which jumped 25% after it estimated that its active accounts for the fourth quarter topped 27M and that streaming hours for the quarter rose 68% to 7.3B.
Among the notable losers was PG&E (PCG), which dropped 22% after Reuters reported that the company is weighing a bankruptcy filing. Also lower was Hi-Crush Partners (HCLP), which fell 16% after it suspended its quarterly distribution due to market conditions.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 98.19, or 0.42%, to 23,531.35 , the Nasdaq gained 84.61, or 1.26%, to 6,823.47 , and the S&P 500 advanced 17.75, or 0.70%, to 2,549.69 .
Dollar Tree
+5.07 (+5.46%)
Eli Lilly
+0.6 (+0.52%)
Loxo Oncology
+92.9 (+66.44%)
Samsung
+ (+0.00%)
Apple
-0.45 (-0.30%)
Nvidia
+7.15 (+5.25%)
Luxoft
+25.975 (+81.93%)
DXC Technology
+0.01 (+0.02%)
Roku
+8.43 (+25.00%)
PG&E
-5.465 (-22.40%)
Hi-Crush Partners
-0.7 (-16.09%)