NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks are moderately lower in midday trading Monday as the market drifts between small gains and losses. A drop in oil prices pulled energy companies lower. Investors were looking ahead to the Fed’s meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for clues on timing for possible interest rate hikes.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average lost 44 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,509 as of 12:05 p.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost five points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,179 and the Nasdaq composite lost nine points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,229.
DRUGMAKER MERGER: Cancer drug maker Medivation jumped $13.24, or 20 percent, to $80.40 after pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced it would buy the company for $14 billion, or $81.50 a share. Pfizer is buying Medivation for its heavily used prostate cancer drug Xtandi, which generates roughly $2 billion in sales a year.
The Medivation deal pushed other biotechnology stocks higher as well. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Alexion Pharmaceuticals all were up 3 percent or more. Health care and utilities were the only two sectors to rise in the S&P 500 index.
ENERGY WEAKNESS: Oil prices fell sharply. U.S. benchmark crude lost $1.46 to $47.65 a barrel and Brent crude, used to price oil internationally, declined $1.54 to $49.34 a barrel. The drop in energy prices dragged down energy stocks, which lost 1.1 percent, more than the rest of the market.