Stock Market Today: Merger News and Home Sales Moving Markets

Stock market today, June 23, 2014: U.S. stock markets dipped on Monday as corporate mergers continued to make headlines and the United States saw home sales rise for a second consecutive month. Last month, sales of previously owned homes increased by 4.9%, the fastest one-month gain since August 2011.

The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.83% to $107.26 a barrel. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note remained in Friday's range of 2.61%.

Here's the scorecard from today's trading session:

Dow: 16,937.26, -9.82 (0.06%)
S&P 500: 1,962.61, -0.26 (0.01)
Nasdaq: 4,368.68, +0.64 (0.01%)

And here are the top stories from the stock market today:

• Another Big Buy: Tech giant Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG, GOOGL) announced plans to purchase video-monitoring startup Dropcam for $555 million in cash. The company develops interconnected household devices such as smoke detectors and thermostats. The deal mirrors Google's recent $3.2 billion purchase of Nest, which creates a number of "smart home" products.
• M&A Heats Up: Shares of Central Garden & Pet Co. (Nasdaq: CENT) jumped more than 7.5% on news that Harbinger Group has offered to purchase the company for $10 per share.
• Recovery Summer: Argentina's Merval stock index surged more than 8.5% today after it was announced that the nation would begin negotiating with its holdout creditors over debts dating back to the nation's 2001 financial crisis. Argentina is trying to prevent a major default in the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that preserved the payment of outstanding debts.
• Time to Pay Up: Shares of Meritor Inc. (NYSE: MTOR) plunged nearly 12.5% on news that the company had settled an antitrust case with Eaton Corp. Plc. (NYSE: ETN) for $500 million. The case, which dates back to 2006, will avoid a jury trial and could have cost Eaton three times the settlement over anticompetitive practices by the firm's truck-transmission business.
• Alternative Push: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse-gases at U.S. power plants. In early June, the EPA proposed detailed plans to slash carbon emissions from existing power plants by up to 25% by 2030.

Now our experts share some of the most important investment moves to make based on today's market trading - for Money Morning Members only:

• The Oil "Crisis Spike" Is Just Getting Started: First there was Ukraine. Now, Iraq is in flames. Oil prices are now likely headed higher. In this case, supply and demand only works in the textbooks. These days, geopolitical events can quickly outdistance the "market-only" factors. Here's what you need to know if you're looking to invest in energy this summer...
• Let's Double Our Money... with a Little Help from the Greatest Analyst Who Never Lived: Here's a great new way to make money. Bill Patalon is a big Sherlock Holmes fan. That doesn't surprise us at all; Bill's a keen analyst himself, and his own sleuthing has led us to some spectacular profits. Take, for example, these plays in the software industry poised to soar...
• This Metal Problem Could Ignite China's Smoldering Crisis: Concerns of China's growth moderating and housing prices dropping 5% this year aside, this might be the real reason for renewed easing: Recent reports indicate that copper and aluminum used as loan collateral may have been re-hypothecated or, worse, may never have existed at all...