Stocks Edge Lower, Twitter Drops on Downgrade

U.S. stock inched lower after the market opened on Monday as investors await reports on U.S. service-sector activity and factory orders. Twitter dropped after Morgan Stanley cut shares of the social media company, to underweight from equal-weight, with a price target of $33.The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately gained 4.34 points, or 0.03%, to 16,474.33. The S&P 500 was off 0.20 point, or 0.01%, to 1,831.17. The Nasdaq Composite fell 13.54 points, or 0.33%, to 4,118.37.

U.S. private sector economic activity growth slowed slightly in December, with the services sector reading also edging lower, an industry report showed on Monday. Financial data firm Markit said its composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) measured 56.1 in December, down just slightly from the 56.2 posted last month, as well as the “flash” or preliminary December reading of the same amount.

Men’s Wearhouse Inc mounted a hostile $1.61 billion bid for Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc in an attempt to break the resistance of its smaller rival and pacify investor demand for a merger of the suit retailers.

JPMorgan Chase is starting the year the same way it ended the last one: by whipping out its wallet, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Ben Protess report in DealBook.

T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS) has agreed to pay around $2.4 billion for low-band spectrum licences from Verizon Wireless (VZ), the company said Monday.

Samsung Electronics and Rambus Inc. said Sunday night they entered a 10-year license agreement. Rambus has been reaching several licensing deals of late after years of courtroom battles that ultimately generated mixed results for the company.