Stocks close mixed as Dow jumps, Nasdaq continues drop Equity futures were weaker in early trading as firming yields continue to rattle stocks, though futures bounced after billionaire fund manager David Tepper told CNBC he finds it hard to be bearish under current circumstances. Despite's Tepper's bullishness, and that of a number of Wall Street analysts about tech, the Nasdaq was the day's underperformer, while the Dow regained some of its recent losses. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., wholesale inventories beat the advance figures, with an unrevised 1.3% rise in the final January print, while sales climbed a better than expected 4.9%. Both wholesale sales and inventories have been lifted by the combination of surging prices and rapidly climbing imports. Data from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering shows there are now 117M confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, including 29M in the U.S., and 2.6M deaths due to the disease, including 525,000 in the U.S. TOP NEWS: Microsoft ($MSFT) was in focus after KrebsOnSecurity reported Friday evening that over 30,000 organizations across the U.S., including a large number of small businesses, towns, cities, and local governments, have in the past few days been hacked by an aggressive Chinese cyber espionage unit centered on stealing email from victim organizations. The espionage unit is exploiting four newly-found flaws in Microsoft Exchange Server email software, and has seeded hundreds of thousands of victim organizations globally with tools that give hackers total remote control over impacted systems, according to Krebs. Such recent hacks may well end up far eclipsing the damage done by the SolarWinds ($SWI) hacks, Krebs noted. Following the news, Reuters reported that the White House urged computer network operators to take further steps to gauge whether their systems were targeted amid the hack. Shares of Athene Holding ($ATH) rose 6% after it agreed to merge with Apollo Global ($APO) in an all-stock transaction that implies a total equity value of roughly $11B for Athene. As part of the announcement, Apollo said it would shift to having a single class of common stock, as well as eliminate special governance rights. Apollo shares fell over 4% after the news. Also on the M&A front, General Electric ($GE) shares were 4.3% higher after The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. conglomerate is nearing a $30B-PLUS deal to combine its aircraft-leasing business, GECAS, with Ireland's AerCap ($AER). In other M&A news, shares of McAfee ($MCFE) jumped 12.6% after agreeing to sell its enterprise business to a consortium led by Symphony Technology Group in an all-cash transaction for $4B. In other news, Merck ($MRK) shares rose 1.4% after the company and Ridgeback Therapeutics reported that molnupiravir, their COVID-19 therapeutic, hit one of its secondary endpoints in a Phase 2a trial. Additionally, Reuters reported that President Joe Biden plans to meet with the chief executives of Merck and Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) at the White House on Wednesday after the companies recently announced a COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing deal. Meanwhile, Air Transport Services Group ($ATSG) disclosed that on March 5, Amazon ($AMZN) submitted written notice to the company to exercise for cash an aggregate of 13,562,897 shares of common stock through the exercise in full of a warrant to purchase 12,810,629 shares and the exercise of a portion of a warrant, dated March 8, 20118, to purchase 752,268 shares. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Second Sight ($EYES), which surged 103% after announcing the FDA has approved the Argus 2s Retinal Prosthesis System. Also higher was GameStop ($GME), which rose almost 42% after the company formed a Strategic Planning and Capital Allocation Committee that will include Chewy ($CHWY) founder Ryan Cohen as chairperson. The committee will "identify initiatives that can further accelerate the company's transformation." Among the notable losers was AnaptysBio ($ANAB), which declined almost 34% after its imsidolimab POLAR Phase 2 trial did not meet its primary endpoint. Also lower was GSX Tech edu ($GSX), which fell 6.9% after CLSA analyst Jeffrey Chan downgraded the stock to Sell from Outperform with a price target of $76, up from $68. Monday's economic data was limited to Wholesale Inventories for January, which increased 1.3% m/m (Briefing.com consensus +1.3%) following a revised 0.6% increase in December (from 0.3%). Investors will not receive any notable economic data on Tuesday.Russell 2000 +11.6% YTDDow Jones Industrial Average +3.9% YTDS&P 500 +1.7% YTDNasdaq Composite -2.2% YTDMarket SnapshotDow31802.44+306.14(0.97%)Nasdaq12609.18-310.99(-2.41%)SP 5003821.35-20.59(-0.54%)10-yr Note -2/321.587NYSEAdv 1925 Dec 1251 Vol 1.2 blnNasdaqAdv 1954 Dec 1950 Vol 5.9 blnIndustry WatchStrong: Industrials, Financials, Materials, UtilitiesWeak: Information Technology, Communication Services, Consumer Discretionary, Health CareMoving the Market-- S&P 500 slips lower amid continued weakness in the technology/growth stocks-- Cyclical/value stocks outperformed amid rotational interest; helped lift Dow to record intraday high-- 10-yr yield settled at 1.60% Disclosure: I may trade in the ticker symbols mentioned, both long or short. My articles represent my personal opinion and analysis and should not be taken as investment advice. 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