Stocks opened little changed and have remained that way throughout the morning. Investors appear to be content sitting on the sidelines awaiting the release of the minutes from last month's FOMC meeting. Investors will be looking for clues as to Fed's more dovish stance on interest rates since January.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the minutes from the January 29-30 FOMC meeting at 2:00 pm ET, to be followed by a press conference from Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
TOP NEWS: Shares of CVS Health (CVS) have dropped 7% after the company reported mixed fourth quarter results and gave lower than expected guidance amid its integration of Aetna and uncertainty around rebates. Additionally, the healthcare company also reported a $2.2B charge related to its long-term care facilities business. Following the news, Wells Fargo analyst Peter Costa downgraded the stock to Market Perform, citing the company's "disappointing" outlook and "continued failure" to stabilize its existing businesses.
Tesla (TSLA) shares have slipped 1% following reports that the company's general counsel is leaving after just two months in the role. The departure of Dane Butswinkas comes just weeks after the company's chief financial officer announced his surprise retirement and the day after Elon Musk sent a tweet about car production that he subsequently had to correct.
Following recent media reports indicating that activist hedge fund Starboard Value has asked a proxy solicitor to evaluate the level of support among Bristol-Myers (BMY) investors for the company's planned acquisition of Celgene (CELG), Bristol-Myers confirmed that Starboard sent a notice of nomination in connection with Bristol-Myers' 2019 annual meeting, which the drugmaker said it would review. Starboard also advised Bristol in the notice that it had acquired 1 million shares of the company's common stock, of which 999,000 shares were acquired on January 31, 2019.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Kandi Technologies (KNDI), which surged 44% after it reported NHTSA approval of two pure electric vehicle models. Also higher were Garmin (GRMN) and Invitae (NVTA), which gained a respective 15% and 13% after reporting quarterly results.
Among the notable losers was Owens & Minor (OMI), which dropped 19% after it named Ed Pesicka president and CEO and reported downbeat quarterly earnings. Also lower after reporting quarterly results were Wix.com (WIX) and Concho Resources (CXO), which fell 12% and 6%, respectively.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 27.84, or 0.11%, to 25,919.16, the Nasdaq was up 19.43, or 0.26%, to 7,506.19, and the S&P 500 was up 4.73, or 0.17%, to 2,784.49.
