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:

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