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 We're still hitting new records in the stock market. First, the scoreboard: - Dow: 17,106.7, +29.8, (+0.1%)
- S&P 500: 2,000.0, +2.1, (+0.1%)
- Nasdaq: 4,570.6, +13.2, (+0.2%)
And now, the top stories on Monday: 1. The S&P 500 got as high as 2,005.04 before settling at 2,000.02 for the day. To be clear, the S&P got above 2,000 on Monday before closing just below that level. According to S&P, the S&P 500 has now made 30 new record highs since the beginning of the year, and 66 of the original 500 companies remain in the index today.
2. Durable goods orders surged 22.6% in July due to an expected spike in aircraft orders. In July, Boeing reported orders for 324 planes, up from 109 in June. Nondefense capital goods order excluding aircraft — a proxy for business spending — fell by 0.5% in July; However, growth in that same measure for June was revised up to 5.4% from an earlier estimate for 1.4%. "On balance, the momentum in core orders in the second quarter bodes well for equipment and software spending in the second half of the year and core shipments remain in line with our outlook for modest rates of business investment," said Barclays' Michael Gapen.
3. The S&P Case-Shiller home price index fell 0.2% month-over-month in June, which was worse than the 0.0% decline expected by economists. ""For the first time since February 2008, all cities showed lower annual rates than the previous month," noted S&P's David Blitzer. "Other housing indicators — starts, existing home sales, and builders' sentiment — are positive. Taken together, these point to a more normal housing sector."
4. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index unexpectedly jumped to 92.4 in August, the highest level since October 2007. "Consumer confidence increased for the fourth consecutive month as improving business conditions and robust job growth helped boost consumers' spirits," said the Conference Board's Lynn Franco. "Looking ahead, consumers were marginally less optimistic about the short-term outlook compared to July, primarily due to concerns about their earnings. Overall, however, they remain quite positive about the short-term outlooks for the economy and labor market."
5. Burger King and Tim Hortons officially announced their plan to merge, sending the U.S. burger chain's tax domicile to Canada via a tax inversion. Tim Hortons shareholders will receive $65.50 in cash per share and 0.8025 of a share in the new parent company. All in, this makes each share of Tim Hortons worth about $89.32. Each share of Burger King will be converted into 0.99 of a share of the new company. 6. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway will be providing $3 billion in preferred equity financing. He'll be getting a 9% dividend on those securities. 7. Best Buy shares fell 6.8% after the company announced comparable store sales fell 2.7% in Q2. This was worse than the 2.2% decline expected. "Like other retailers and as reflected in this quarter's performance, we continued to see a shift in consumer behavior: Consumers are increasingly researching and buying online," CEO Hubert Joly said. "As a result, traffic to our brick-and-mortar stores continued to decline, yet our in-store conversion and online traffic continued to increase." Indeed, online sales surged 22% during the period.
8. Orbitz Worldwide shares fell 4.6% after the online travel site announced some major airlines would no longer list their fares on the site. "American Airlines has withdrawn its fares from consumer websites powered by Orbitz, effective immediately," said management. "American Airlines Group has notified Orbitz it also will withdraw US Airways fares on Sept. 1, 2014."
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