10 things you need to know before the opening bell
Chinese stocks crashed. China's Shanghai Composite plunged 8.5% on Monday, posting its largest single-day decline in more than eight years. Heavy selling was indiscriminate, with more than half of the index's listings finishing limit down, -10%. The Shanghai Composite must fall another 6% before taking out its July 8 low.
Mario Draghi's 'whatever it takes' speech turns 3 today. With peripheral bond yields greater than 6.50%, Mario Draghi delivered his infamous "whatever it takes" speech, promising to preserve the euro. As part of his plan, Draghi introduced Outright Monetary Transactions and cut interest rates to zero. His actions caused peripheral yields to ease significantly over the next 2 1/2 years, with both Italy and Spain nearing the 1.00% threshold before the recent flare-up in Greece. The Italian and Spanish 10-year yields are now at 1.89% and 1.92%, respectively.
Teva is buying Allergan's generic-drug company. The deal, which is valued at $40.5 billion, would pay Allergan $33.75 billion in cash and $6.75 billion worth of Teva shares. According to the press release, Teva would become one of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world once the deal is completed. The healthcare space has seen a flurry of dealmaking after last month's Supreme Court ruling effectively ensured the existence of the Affordable Care Act for at least the near-term. Teva announced it was no longer pursuing the generic drugmaker Mylan Pharmaceuticals.
McGraw Hill is trying to buy SNL Financial. The financial service provider McGraw Hill is nearing a $2 billion buyout of SNL Financial. People close to the matter told Bloomberg a deal could be announced as early as Monday. The deal would be the second in the financial-media space over the past week as Pearson sold FT Group to Nikkei for $1.3 billion.
Fiat Chrysler has been hit with a record fine. The automaker was fined a record $105 million for failing to go through with 23 recalls covering 11 million vehicles. According to The New York Times, the fine is composed of a $70 million cash fine, an agreement the company will spend $20 million on meeting performance standards, and another $15 million fine if further violations are discovered. "This civil penalty puts manufacturers on notice that the department will act when they do not take their obligations to repair safety defects seriously," said Anthony Foxx, the secretary of transportation.
UBS profit tops estimates. The Swiss investment bank announced its profit rose 53% to 1.21 billion Swiss francs ($1.26 billion) in the quarter, easily outpacing the 878 million francs that was expected. The results were due out on Tuesday, but the report was released early after a Swiss newspaper published inaccurate results on Sunday. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Pretax operating profit at UBS' flagship wealth-management business more than doubled in the quarter, to 756 million francs."
German Ifo Business Climate outpaced estimates. The July reading came in at 108.0, topping the 107.6 that economists had predicted. Monday's reading has the number hovering near its best levels in a year. The euro is up 0.7% at 1.1064.
Stock markets around the world are lower. Aside from the carnage in China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng (-3.1%) lagged while Australia's ASX (+0.4%) outperformed. In Europe, France's CAC (-1.5%) leads the way lower. S&P 500 futures are down 8.25 points at 2,069.25.
US economic data is light. Durable orders will cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down 2 basis points at 2.24%.
Earnings continue to flow. Norfolk Southern, Philips, and Teva Pharmaceutical are names to watch following their reports ahead of the opening bell. Baidu.com, Eastman, and Hartford Financial highlight the companies set to report after the closing bell.