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U.S. Stocks Ease as Markets Watch Oil, Fed

By Paul Vigna

Welcome to Evening MoneyBeat, WSJ's closing-bell roundup of all the news and developments in the capital markets. To receive this newsletter, click here: http://on.wsj.com/MoneyBeatEveningSignup

Market Snap at Mon, 22 Aug 2016 16:38:50 -0400 ET

S&P 500 -0.06%

↓ 2182.64

DJIA -0.12%

↓ 18529.42

Nasdaq Comp 0.12%

↑ 5244.6

U.S. 10 Year 11/32

↓ 1.543%

Crude Oil -3.52%

↓ $46.81

Gold -0.26%

↓ $1342.70

Yen/Dollar 0.08%

↑ $100.3

Euro/Dollar -0.03%

↓ $1.13

How We Got Here

U.S. stocks finished a quiet session little changed, but were under pressure all day as crude-oil futures fell 3% and markets overseas fell amid speculation about the Federal Reserve's next moves.

The market is likely to sit in a tight range this week ahead of the Fed's big symposium in Jackson Hole. With Janet Yellen on the docket of speakers, folks are probably going to wait until her speech on Friday before doing any major buying or selling. In a speech on Sunday that hit home with overseas traders, Fed vice chairman Stanley Fischer said the bank was "close" to its economic targets and expects growth to pick up in the next few quarters. The market interpreted the remarks as being another nod in the direction of a coming rate hike, adding to comments in the same vein last week by other Fed officials. That could be interpreted as laying some groundwork for a hike, but the real tell will be Ms. Yellen's speech.

Crude oil fell amid waning enthusiasm over speculation about OPEC production cuts - speculation that had pushed the commodity up 24% from Aug. 2 through Friday's close. In this exact space on Friday, in fact, we noted that these kinds of rumors are persistent in the oil patch, and often amount to little. The rest of the market seemed to get that point on Monday.

In deal news, Pfizer agreed to a $14 billion deal to buy biotech Medivation. The deal would bring under Pfizer's stable the blockbuster cancer drug Xtandi, which brings in about $2 billion in sales. Elsewhere, China National Chemical's planned $43 billion takeover of Swiss seed giant Syngenta received approved from a U.S. regulator with oversight of foreign deals (about a quarter of Syngenta's sales come from North America).

Coming Up

Data Front: New Home Sales (10:00 AM ET), Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index (10:00 AM ET).

Earnings: Best Buy, Intuit, J.M. Smucker, Toll Brothers.

MoneyBeat Podcast

Play Podcast →

Paul Vigna, Jack Otter and Chuck Jaffe discuss why The Rio Olympics isn't winning the gold in the ratings game and a nervous bear with a book deal gets some investment advice.

Tweet of the Day

I kind of respect the first person who realized that if you have bad opinions loudly enough, somehow people start giving you money for it. --Josh Gondelman ‏@joshgondelman

Today's Video

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The science of how food affects our genes or nutritional genomics is becoming more mainstream as more people have access to their genetic information. WSJ's Sumathi Reddy joins Lunch Break to discuss how it works.

Number of the Day

Unilever's PE ratio is currently at 28, the highest level in 16 years, just one of the many "bond-like" stocks that investors have been gravitating towards as fixed-income yields hit historic lows.

Must Reads

Prizer to Buy Medivation for $14 Billion: Pfizer said Monday that it had agreed to buy biotech Medivation for about $14 billion, in a move that adds one of the crown jewels of the multibillion-dollar market for cancer drugs to Pfizer's portfolio.

U.S. Stocks Slip as Crude-Oil Prices Fall: U.S. stocks slipped Monday, dragged down by commodity-linked shares.

It's Getting Scary Quiet in the Stock Market: Even by the standards of August, the S&P 500 has been remarkably tranquil, moving by less than in any other 30-day period in more than two decades.

Risks Linger as Investors Seize Upon 'Bond-Like' Stocks: With bond yields around the world plunging to fresh lows this year, investors have been seeking out alternatives. That's made bond proxies, or bond-like-stocks, a hot commodity. In a low interest rate world, an asset that can provide steady growth and regular streams of income is extremely desirable.

Kobe Bryant, Jeff Stibel Unveil Venture Fund: Meet Kobe Bryant, venture capitalist. The retired NBA star today unveiled his venture-capital fund, a $100 million vehicle for investing in technology, media and data companies.

ChemChina-Syngenta Deal Approved by U.S. Security Panel: China Inc.'s global ambitions cleared a big hurdle after the U.S. national-security regulator approved China National Chemical Corp.'s planned $43 billion takeover of Swiss seed giant Syngenta AG.

Alcohol Firms Fight Against Warnings Against Moderate Drinking: The alcohol industry, long helped by the idea that light drinking can be good for the heart, is fighting back against growing warnings from public-health officials of elevated cancer risks.

New Technique Shrinks, Makes Small Animals Transparent: European researchers report they have devised a method that not only makes bigger animals, such as rats, see-through but also shrinks them to a third of their original size in some cases to get a better window into their anatomy.