The DJIA was down triple digits at its intraday low
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down triple digits at its afternoon low, erasing early gains after Donald Trump Jr. released an email chain that led to a meeting between himself and a Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign. The emails suggest President Trump's son was promised damaging information on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by "the Crown prosecutor of Russia." While the Dow has come well off its session lows, it's still staring at a loss, along with the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (COMP). Oil prices, meanwhile, have swung higher on expectations of a weekly decline in U.S. supplies, overshadowing a batch of downwardly revised price forecasts from several banks. At last check, August-dated crude futures were up 0.5% at $44.60 per barrel.
Continue reading for more on today's market -- and don't miss:
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- Plus, Rent-A-Center options volume explodes; the energy stock up 47%; and Snap stock sinks to new lows.
Among the stocks with unusual options volume is Rent-A-Center Inc (NASDAQ:RCII), with more than 25,000 contracts traded -- 34 times the expected intraday rate, and volume on track to settle in the 100th annual percentile. RCII stock has jumped 7.8% to trade at $11.97, on news the rent-to-own specialist was offered a $15-per-share buyout bid at Vintage Capital Management. Options traders, meanwhile, are bracing for a big pullback, with buy-to-open activity detected at the September 10 put -- RCII's most active option.
Shares of Halcon Resources Corporation (NYSE:HK) are at the top of the New York Stock Exchange, up 47.1% to trade at $6.56, after the shale producer said it will sell its Williston Basin assets to privately held Bruin E&P Partners LLC for $1.4 billion in cash. Nevertheless, HK stock remains down 30% on the year, and could be contained by familiar resistance at its 80-day moving average.
Snapchat parent Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) is near the bottom of the Big Board, after Morgan Stanley, a lead underwriter on the tech firm's initial public offering (IPO), downgraded the shares. SNAP stock was last seen trading down 5.4% at $16.07 -- below its $17-per-share IPO -- and earlier hit a record low of $15.84.