US close: Stocks weaker amid more M&A action

Stocks closed in the red on Wall Street on Wednesday, after a top Federal Reserve official made the case for a prompt withdrawal of the central bank's emergency bond purchases.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.2% at 35,031.07, the S&P 500 slipped 0.13% to 4,514.07, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.57% weaker at 15,286.64.

In an interview with the Financial Times earlier, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, James Bullard, dismissed concerns about a slowdown in hiring and said the Fed would start tapering those bond purchases before the end of 2021.

He also favoured ending tapering by the end of March 2022 to give the Fed "optionality" to raise interest rates and because of the "incipient housing bubble".

On a related note, Andrew Garthwaite, Credit Suisse's chief equity strategist, reiterated his "small underweight", but with a small overweight for tech, on US equities.

He said that they tended to perform worse when the cost of high-yield debt rose, the US had the lowest operational leverage, tax and regulatory risk seemed higher than in Europe and Japan, and valuations - excluding TMT stocks - were "extreme".

In economic news, the Department of Labor reported that the number of US job openings jumped at a month-on-month pace of 7.4% in July to reach a record high of approximately 10.93m.

On the corporate side of things, another raft of mergers and acquisitions news was in the spotlight.

Kadmon Holdings shares rocketed 71.13% after French drugs giant Sanofi said it would buy the US biopharma outfit at an enterprise value of $1.9bn.

Vertiv went the other way, falling 7.31% after it announced the acquisition of E&I Engineering Ireland for roughly $1.8bn upfront, plus a further up to $200m if certain milestones were met.

Philip Morris International was 2.24% weaker despite reiterating full-year guidance for earnings per share of $5.76-5.86.

The company said the global shortage of semiconductors was hurting its IQOS business.

Dow Jones - Risers

Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $56.42 1.35%
Visa Inc. (V) $229.09 1.25%
3M Co. (MMM) $187.89 1.24%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $238.62 1.03%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $331.58 0.80%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $144.60 0.76%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $158.74 0.60%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $138.67 0.44%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $185.15 0.44%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $51.09 0.18%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $60.69 -1.91%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $415.39 -1.39%
Boeing Co. (BA) $211.38 -1.33%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $405.00 -1.30%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $160.71 -1.19%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $155.11 -1.01%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $262.62 -0.98%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $75.36 -0.82%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $206.77 -0.70%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $96.39 -0.69%

S&P 500 - Risers

Perrigo Company plc (PRGO) $45.34 8.99%
Global Payments Inc. (GPN) $170.02 7.19%
General Mills Inc. (GIS) $59.38 4.56%
Everest Re Group Ltd. (RE) $263.43 4.46%
Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) $37.06 3.93%
Cimarex Energy Co (XEC) $73.77 3.78%
Constellation Brands Inc. Class A (STZ) $216.97 3.67%
Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (COG) $18.41 3.66%
Carmax Inc. (KMX) $131.39 3.52%
Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) $130.00 3.40%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Coty Inc. Class A (COTY) $8.29 -10.67%
PulteGroup Inc. (PHM) $49.53 -6.05%
Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX) $34.37 -5.47%
FMC Technologies Inc. (FTI) $6.29 -4.84%
Universal Health Services Inc. (UHS) $148.73 -4.28%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $84.33 -4.24%
Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) $26.66 -4.20%
Twitter Inc (TWTR) $62.27 -4.17%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $58.08 -3.84%
PVH Corp. (PVH) $108.57 -3.66%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Kraft Heinz Co. (KHC) $37.06 3.93%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $106.59 2.99%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $80.29 2.32%
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) $118.04 1.94%
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $729.92 1.91%
O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $591.40 1.85%
Cintas Corp. (CTAS) $398.30 1.75%
Monster Beverage Corp (MNST) $96.84 1.74%
Fiserv Inc. (FISV) $117.00 1.74%
Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) $206.34 1.59%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

NetEase Inc. Ads (NTES) $90.78 -5.17%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $84.33 -4.24%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $58.08 -3.84%
Paypal Holdings Inc (PYPL) $285.23 -2.74%
Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $1,906.14 -2.44%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $162.68 -2.40%
Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) $133.56 -2.15%
Hasbro Inc (HAS) $98.11 -2.10%
Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS) $177.71 -2.06%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $19.13 -2.05%