Stocks declined on Monday, June 18, as investors reacted to last week's escalation in the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing that targeted $50 billion in Chinese-made goods with fresh tariffs from the White House.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 103 points, or 0.41%, to 24,987. The S&P 500 declined 0.21% and the Nasdaq rose 0.01%.
Global oil prices traded higher following a report that suggested OPEC members, along with allies such as Russia, were discussing a smaller-than-expected production hike ahead of their much-anticipated meeting in Vienna later this week.
Brent crude, the European benchmark, jumped 2.6% to $75.32 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, rose 1.2% to settle at $65.85 a barrel.
Energy giants Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Chevron Corp. (CVX) finished higher on Monday. Chevron was getting a boost from an upgrade to outperform from market perform at Raymond James.
Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOGL) Google said it would invest $550 million in China-based internet giant JD.com (JD) that will allow Alphabet to deepen its reach inside the world's second-largest economy and help JD expand into Southeast Asia and Europe by promoting more of its products on Google's shopping platform.
The companies said the agreement initially won't involve any major new Google initiatives in China, where the company's main services are blocked over its refusal to censor search results in line with local laws, Reuters reported.
JD.com rose 0.39%, while Alphabet was up 2.1%.
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Walt Disney Co. (DIS) was downgraded to sell from hold by analysts at Pivotal Research. The analysts have a price target of $93 on the stock, which fell 1.66% on Monday to $107.04.
Meanwhile, CNBC reported that the media giant is expected to add cash to its bid for assets of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (FOXA) .
Rent-A-Center Inc. (RCII) agreed to be taken private by private-equity firm Vintage Capital in a deal valued at about $1.365 billion. Vintage Capital will pay $15 a share for Rent-A-Center. Shares of the rent-to-own retailer rose 22% to $14.68.
Shares of PTC Therapeutics Inc. (PTCT) soared 27% on Monday after the biotech company over the weekend presented updated interim clinical data on spinal muscular atrophy drug risdiplam. The data, presented at the 22nd Annual SMA Researcher Meeting, showed that at Day 182 more than 90% of babies had an increase of more than four points in their Chop-Intend score compared to the baseline. The Chop-Intend is an assessment of motor skill in SMA Type 1.
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