Stock Market Today: Merger News and Home Sales Moving Markets

Garrett Baldwin

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:

Garrett Baldwin

About the Author

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Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, and consultant with degrees from Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, and Indiana University. He is a seasoned financial and political risk analyst, with a focus on stocks, hedge funds, private equity, blockchain, and housing policy. He has conducted risk assessment projects for clients in 27 countries, and consulted on policy and financial operations for some of the nation's largest financial institutions, including a $1.5 trillion credit fund, a $43 billion credit and auto loan giant, as well as two of the largest Wall Street banks by assets under management.

Garrett joined Money Map Press as an economist and researcher in 2011, specializing in alternative strategies with an emphasis on fundamental and technical analysis.

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