U.S. Stocks Follow Global Markets Lower

U.S. Market
U.S. stocks followed global markets lower this morning after Shanghai-traded shares had their worst day since 2007.

Durable goods orders were up 3.4% in June from May levels, above the 2.7% rise expected by economists. The number was boosted by a 66.1% increase in nondefense aircraft orders after Boeing BA announced a slew of new orders at the Paris Air Show. Excluding the transportation section, orders were up 0.8%

At midday the Nasdaq was down 0.9%, the Dow was off 0.7% while the S&P 500 was 0.5% lower.

Stocks on the Move
Teva (TEVA) has agreed to by Allergan's (AGN) generic drug business for $40.5 billion in cash and stock. The deal would combine the largest and third-largest generic drug makers. Teva is dropping its pursuit of Mylan (MYL) in favor of this transaction. Allergan will use the proceeds from the sale to pay down debt and focus on its core branded operations. At midday, shares of Teva soared 12%, Allergan shares gained 7% while shares of Mylan fell 14%.

UBS (UBS) said today that its second-quarter results were ahead of analyst expectations on the back of the firm’s strong wealth-management division. The bank was expected to report on Tuesday, but pushed up the timing of the announcement after inaccurate data was published over the weekend. Shares were down less than 1% at midday.

Foreign Markets
European markets were broadly lower after the Chinese sell off. The Paris CAC, Germany’s DAX and the FTSE 100 were down 2.5%, 2.4% and 1% respectively.

The Shanghai Composite plunged 8.5% today, the largest decline since 2007, on signs that the central Government was slowing down its pace of share purchases. The government has been trying to support prices by purchasing share in recent weeks. The Hang Seng was off 3.1% while the Nikkei 225 dropped less than 1%.