Stock market today: Live updates

Diamondback Energy announced Monday it agreed to merge with Endeavor Energy in a deal valued at about $26 billion, including debt.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024.

“The combined company’s inventory will have industry-leading depth and quality that will be converted into cash flow with the industry’s lowest cost structure, creating a differentiated value proposition for our stockholders,” Diamondback CEO Travis Stice said in a statement.

Diamondback shares were down slightly in the premarket.

The New Zealand dollar dipped 0.3% to $0.6130, cooling from a roughly 1.4% jump last week.

Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Adrian Orr said the country’s current inflation rate was still too high at 4.7%. Speaking before a parliamentary committee, Orr said the central bank aims to bring inflation down to around 2%.

The kiwi dollar has been buoyed by bets that RBNZ could hike its interest rates again in order to rein in inflation.

LSEG data showed markets were pricing in a 71% chance of a hold when the central bank meets on Feb. 28 and a 52% chance of a hike at its May meeting.

Shares of CSL fell 5% after the Australian biotechnology company said its cardiovascular drug CSL112 failed to meet the primary efficacy endpoint in a phase 3 trial.

CSL said the drug did not reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events at 90 days, compared with placebo. As a result, the company said it has “no plans for a near-term regulatory filing.”

CSL shares were the biggest loser on Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index, and fell to their lowest level in almost one month.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

The S&P 500 notched a record high this week, closing above the key 5,000 mark on Friday afternoon. But Infrastructure Capital Advisors’ Jay Hatfield believes that the index still has room to go in 2024.

Hatfield’s year-end target for the broader index is 5,500, corresponding to a potential 9% rise. In the near term, however, he believes that the market will remain largely stagnant while investors wait for the Federal Reserve to begin cutting rates.

“I don’t think we’re just going to infinitely and quickly go to 5,500,” he told CNBC. “Our guess is that we stall out somewhere around 5,000 or 5,100 until we have greater clarity on both a Fed and ECB rate cut most likely in June, but possibly in May,” he told CNBC.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Here are the market stats from last week:

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.04% higher last week, its fifth positive week in a row.
• The S&P 500 gained 1.37% for the week, its fifth positive week in a row.
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 2.31% for the week, its fifth positive week in a row.
• All three major averages have risen in 14 of the past 15 weeks.

— Lisa Kailai Han, Christopher Hayes

Stock futures hovered near the flatline on Sunday night, with the three major futures contracts all trading within 0.1% of their previous close.

— Lisa Kailai Han