The S&P 500 crossed its previous closing high reached two months ago on Monday, and the Nasdaq broke its previous highs reached Friday. It was an ugly day for commodities.
First, the scoreboard:
- Dow: 18,120.25, +33.80, (0.19%)
- S&P 500: 2,131.11, +4.47 (0.21%)
- Nasdaq: 5,228.37, +18.23, (0.35%)
And now, the top stories on Monday:
- Gold crashed to a five-year low. Overnight, the spot price of gold fell 3.8%, or $43, within a few seconds. The precious metal fell more than 2% to as low as $1,087.40 an ounce on Monday. An analyst at ANZ bank said the move was caused by "[the] nature, size, and timing of the heavy selling." An investor in China dumped the equivalent of one-fifth of a normal day's trade in two minutes.
- Gold miners got smoked. Among the biggest losing stocks were Barrick Gold, the world's largest miner of the metal, which fell more than 14% to a 25-year low. Newmont Mining fell 11% - the most on the S&P 500, and shares of Kinross Gold Corporation fell to an all-time low. Gold mining stocks listed in London also fell sharply. The Gold Miners ETF fell nearly 10%, and the SPDR Gold Shares ETF fell more than 2%.
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil briefly fell below $50 per barrel for the first time since April 6. Oil prices marked a third weekly decline on Friday, amid concerns of oversupply in the market. Iranian oil exports are expected in about a year, following the impending lifting of economic sanctions. And, according to JP Morgan, surging Iraqi production is, in fact, a bigger threat to the oil market.
- Greece has used its emergency loan to pay back the IMF and the ECB. In a statement Monday, an IMF spokesperson confirmed that Greece paid all of its arrears to the IMF, totaling about EUR 2 billion. Greece also paid EUR 4.2 billion to the ECB. Greek banks reopened today after they had been closed for three weeks as part of capital controls.
- Shares of Vivint Solar surged more than 44% after the announcement that SunEdison and TerraForm are acquiring the company. According to the statement, the deal will boost SunEdison's operations in the residential and commercial solar energy space. Vivint Solar is selling for $2.2 billion in a combination of cash and stock. SunEdison is offering Vivint shareholders $16.50 a share, a 52% premium to Friday's closing price of $10.88.
- The Financial Times may be for sale. According to Bloomberg, Pearson is looking into bidders for the 127-year-old British newspaper in a deal that would value the FT at about $1.6 billion. People familiar with the matter said that digital publishing giant Axel Springer may be a possible buyer.
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