The markets closed mostly lower today as trade war news from China held back stocks, along with concerns in Washington. The Dow 30 was lower by 181, the S&P 500 closed lower by 10, and the Nasdaq 100 finished in the green by 6. This week is interest rate week; the Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise rates by a quarter point once again.
Sector News
Oil prices pushed higher today as global oil producing countries could not agree on an increase in production and will leave production at current levels for now. Oil was higher by over 2% today, hitting its highest price in almost two months.
Stock News
Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) shares sold off 6% today as it was announced that they officially won the bidding for British Broadcaster Sky in a weekend auction, beating out 21st Century Fox with a $38.8 billion bid. This should put the drama of the Disney (NYSE: DIS), Fox (NASDAQ: FOX), Comcast, Sky News dealings behind us for now.
SiriusXM (NASDAQ: SIRI) announced it would be buying Pandora (NYSE: P) for $3.5 billion in an all-stock deal. This puts the value per share at $10.14 which is just a slight premium to the closing price as of Friday. SiriusXM has made it clear that they were looking for ways to "expand their reach" going as far back as last year. Shares of SIRI sold off 7% on the news, while Pandora enjoyed a 3.5% gain on the day.
Dell Technologies has been reportedly talking with multiple banks about putting a deal together to go public once again. Since Dell's plan to buy the Dell portion of stock that VMWare controlled has failed, it seems the company is ready to prepare their IPO independent of VMWare.