Commodities slump hits stocks ahead of Fed meeting

Stocks (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC) take a break ahead of a big week, as sinking oil prices slam the markets. Catch The Final Round at 4 p.m. with Alexis Christoforous and markets correspondent Nicole Sinclair.

Verizon snags Yahoo core assets for $4.8B

The wait is over. Yahoo, our parent company, finally reached a deal with Verizon to sell its core business, minus its patents, for $4.83 billion. Frank Louthan, telecom analyst at Raymond James explains why this deal had to happen and what it means for Verizon.

Winners and losers

Stocks on the move lower today include software company Tableau on a Deutsche Bank downgrade, Santander Consumer USA after it revealed it will delay its second quarter earnings statement and Deere. The agriculture equipment maker slipping on a Piper Jaffray downgrade citing falling demand for products as grain prices keep dropping.

Stocks starting the week in the green today include Outerwall as the Redbox and Coinstar operator will be bought by Apollo Global; Micron Technology as the chip maker revealed it has adopted a poison pill, signaling a deal could be coming; and Sprint. The mobile carrier is on fire after reporting a huge jump in post-paid subscribers, the biggest gain in customers it’s had in nine years.

Looking ahead

• The FOMC’s two-day policy meeting begins in Washington. Although many Fed-watchers believe we may see some hints of a rate hike path, it is not expected that there will be any changes to the Fed funds rate.

• We’ll get a big read on the services sector with PMI’s flash services index for July. The Street’s hoping to build from last month’s modest expansion.

• And Apple reports tomorrow, detailing its fiscal third quarter. Stick with Yahoo Finance as we’ll have those numbers live for you tomorrow at 4 p.m. ET.