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Stocks started Wednesday weaker for a second straight day, with tech companies once again among the biggest losers in the market.
The most notable tech mover has been Twitter, which reversed premarket gains and fell by as much as 6% on Wednesday even after topping analyst expectations while reporting its second quarterly profit in company history. Snap fell sharply, meanwhile, after the company confirmed it was testing a rollback of part of its Snapchat app redesign.
Elsewhere in markets news:
- Stocks are defying conventional wisdom - and their strange behavior offers a huge hint as to what's really driving the market
- US stocks are operating with a mind of their own - here's why that's a promising sign for global markets
- ALBERT EDWARDS: Stock markets are looking for a reason to crash - and they may have found it
- 'They're changing the whole way that commerce works' - BlackRock's $1.8 trillion bond chief explains how millennials are spearheading an economic revolution
In deal news, Takeda has reached a deal to buy Adderall drugmaker Shire for $64.3 billion. The two companies each have a phalanx of investment bankers advising on the proposed transaction, with four of the big five Wall Street banks landing a role.
NBC owner Comcast has gate-crashed Fox's takeover of Sky with a £22 billion bid. The deal pits some of the sharpest minds in global mergers and acquisitions against each other, with the three sides represented by some of the biggest names on Wall Street and in the City of London.
And Salesforce is facing a "new competitive reality" in M&A and Microsoft has an important edge, according to Barclays.