The major averages were searching for direction in early trading after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said over the weekend that she has informed the White House that it has until Tuesday to reach an agreement with Democrats or it is highly unlikely that a stimulus deal will be reached before the election. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Pelosi were said to be planning a call this afternoon to further discuss a possible stimulus deal, Jake Sherman of Politico reported. Sherman added in a subsequent update on the situation that on private call with the Democratic caucus, Pelosi reiterated that her deadline for a deal is tomorrow. 

ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the NAHB housing market index rose 2 points to 85 in October to hit a new record high. 

In China, GDP was reported to have climbed 4.9% year-over-year in Q3. While this is better growth than may be seen during the quarter than in many other parts of the world, it still fell short of expectations.

Data from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering shows there are now 40.2M confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, including 8.16M in the U.S., and 1.12M deaths due to the disease, including about 220,000 in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Politico reported that Mnuchin and Pelosi held a 3:00 pm ET call today to further discuss a potential COVID-19 stimulus bill. Politico's Jake Sherman said that Pelosi reiterated that her deadline for a deal is tomorrow.

TOP NEWS: In M&A news, ConocoPhillips (COP) and Concho Resources (CXO) announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine companies in an all-stock transaction, as had been recently foreshadowed by media reports. The transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, will create a combined company with an approximately $60B enterprise value that will hold approximately 23B barrels of oil equivalent, or BBOE, resources with an average cost of supply of below $30 per barrel WTI, Conoco and Concho stated.

In other M&A news, American Equity Investment Life (AEL), which had recently confirmed that it received an unsolicited non-binding proposal from Athene Holding (ATH) to acquire all outstanding common shares for $36.00 per share in cash, opted instead to enter into a strategic partnership with Brookfield Asset Management (BAM). Under the terms of the partnership agreement, Brookfield will acquire a 19.9% ownership interest in the common shares of AEL in two stages: an initial purchase of a 9.9% interest at $37.00 per share and a second purchase of an incremental 10.0% interest, at the greater value of $37.00 per share or adjusted book value per share. Following the partnership announcement, American Equity shares have fallen about 20%.

In other Brookfield news, Bloomberg reported that Brookfield will acquire an Indian developer's commercial properties for $2B, the biggest real estate deal yet in the South Asian nation.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that Intel (INTC) is nearing a deal to sell a memory-chip unit to South Korea's SK Hynix for roughly $10B. Following the report, Intel shares closed fractionally higher, while flash NAND rival Western Digital (WDC) advanced 7.8%.

MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Front Yard Residential Corporation (RESI), which gained 35.2% after the company announced it has agreed to be acquired by a partnership led by Pretium and including funds managed by the Real Estate Equity and Alternative Credit strategies of Ares Management Corporation (ARES) for $13.50 in cash per share. Also higher was BioSpecifics (BSTC), which rose 45.3% after Endo (ENDP) agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of the company for $540M. Shares of Endo were 13.2% higher after the news.

Among the notable losers was Aerie Pharmaceuticals (AERI), which slid 14.8% after BofA analyst Jason Gerberry downgraded the stock to Underperform from Neutral. Also lower was Mednax (MD), which fell 8.3% after Deutsche Bank analyst Pito Chickering downgraded the stock to Sell from Hold.

INDEXES: The Dow fell 410.89, or 1.44%, to 28,195.42, the Nasdaq dropped 192.67, or 1.65%, to 11,478.88, and the S&P 500 declined 56.89, or 1.63%, to 3,426.92.