The markets finished the day in the red after starting quite strong. The wild ride caused the Dow 30 to gain 11, the S&P 500 finished the day flat, and the Nasdaq 100 lost 9, thanks to a pullback in apple. Tomorrow traders get a look at building permits and housing starts prior to the open.
General Motors (GM ) spiked higher by 2.42% early this morning after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to overweight from equal-weight, and raised the price target by $8 to $37 a share. Separately, the head of Canada's auto workers union says thousands of factory workers will strike at two General Motors plants if the two sides are not able to negotiate a new contract by the Monday night deadline. Analysts say that a strike would disrupt supply of engines that go into GM's sport utility vehicles, including the Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade.
Alphabet (GOOGL ) although it didn't hurt the stock much today (-0.32%), the parent company of Google could be hit with a tax bill of more than $400 million for last year alone if the Indonesian government finds it avoided tax payments. This news was released by Reuters.
Merck (MRK ) sold off 1.53% today after French rival Sanofi filed a lawsuit claiming the US drug company infringed as many as 10 of its patents, including ones for its blockbuster diabetes treatment Lantus, and its insulin delivery device soloSTAR. US-listed shares of Sanofi (SNY ) rose slightly (0.91%) on the news.
Avnet (AVT ) shares shot higher first thing this morning (6.83%) following news that it's selling its IT business to Tech Data (TECD ) for about $2.6 billion in cash and stock. Volume was well above average and shares finished near the upper end of the days range.
