The major averages began the session sharply higher but had pared their gains by the middle of the morning then turned mixed, as they remained for the rest of the day. Oil prices closed about 1% higher as the commodity tries to bounce back following five consecutive lower weekly closes. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., durable goods orders fell 1.1% overall during May, versus the expected decline of 0.6%. If transportation items are removed from the data, the core reading showed orders were up 0.1%, versus the expected increase of 0.4%. The Chicago Fed national activity index had a reading of -0.26, versus the expected reading of 0.20. The Dallas Fed manufacturing index slipped to 15.0 in June after edging up to 17.2 in May. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Nestle (NSRGY) trading in New York rose about 4% after activist investor Dan Loeb's Third Point took a $3.5B stake in the foodmaking giant. Third Point is urging Nestle to improve margins, repurchase shares and dispose of noncore assets, including its 23% stake in L'Oreal (LRLCY). MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Store Capital (STOR), which jumped over 11% after the company announced that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) has invested $377M in the company for a nearly 10% stake. Also higher was Avis Budget (CAR), which surged 14% after Alphabet's (GOOG) self-driving car unit, Waymo, announced an agreement for Avis to manage its fleet of self-driving vehicles in Arizona. Additionally, Hertz (HTZ) advanced 13.5% after Bloomberg reported that Apple (AAPL) was leasing a small fleet of vehicles from the company to test self-driving technology. Among the noteworthy losers was Seattle Genetics (SGEN), which dropped over 8% after the company and partner Takeda Pharmaceutical (TKPYY) announced data from the Phase 3 ECHELON-1 clinical trial evaluating ADCETRIS as part of a frontline combination chemotherapy regimen in patients with previously untreated advanced Hodgkin lymphoma. Also lower was Stratasys (SSYS), which fell 11.7% after Goldman Sachs downgraded the 3D printer maker's shares to Sell from Hold. INDEXES: The Dow rose 14.79, or 0.07%, to 21,409.55, the Nasdaq fell 18.10, or 0.29%, to 6,247.15, and the S&P 500 added 0.77, or 0.03%, to 2,439.07
