Carl Icahn Swaps eBay Shares for PayPal Stake

The evacuation of a German soccer stadium late in the trading session forced stocks to give up just about all their gains. The Dow struggled to hold onto a small slice of green after being up more than 116 points earlier. By the closing bell, the Dow held on by only 6 points. The S&P turned green for the year before dipping back below that benchmark to end the day down nearly 3 points. The Nasdaq gained 1 point.

Reports of a terror threat in Hanover, Germany during  a soccer game between Germany and the Netherlands was canceled and the stadium was evacuated due to a bomb threat. No bomb turned up but the ramped up efforts to defeat ISIS pushed two names to hit new lifetime highs. Tomahawk missile maker Raytheon (NYSE:RTN) reached a new high for a second day, as did Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), which makes laser-guided hellfire missiles.

Gold, though, melted to lows it hasn't seen in years. The commodity settled under $1,070 an ounce for the first time since 2010.

Billionaire Carl Icahn got what he wanted from eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), and now he's getting out. The activist investor swapped his 46 million shares for the same number of Paypal (NASDAQ:PYPL) shares. Icahn had been pushing eBay to spin off the e-payment giant because he said it was undervalued.

The stars of the session ended up being Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Home Depot (NYSE:HD). Both reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, giving their own stocks and retail as a whole a brighter day.