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The Nasdaq Composite notched modest gains and closed at a record for the third straight session on Monday. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out gains to barely close higher as a modest rally fizzled out by the end of the session. The Nasdaq Composite rose 8.72 points, or 0.2% to 5,218.86, closing at a record. The S&P 500 ended 1.63 points, or 0.1%, higher at 2,128.27, less than 3 points below its all-time closing high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 13.96 points, or 0.1%, to 18,100.41.

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EBay Inc. has purchased key technology and top leadership of Twice, an online marketplace for secondhand clothes. Twice, which refers to itself as a hybrid between traditional online retailers like Amazon.com Inc. and peer-to-peer marketplaces like eBay, is an e-commerce site that enables people to exchange their high-quality used clothing for money. Under the terms of this deal, the existing Twice website and brand will be shut down, and certain members of the Twice leadership team moved to eBay to operate within a division called eBay Valet, which enables people to send items into eBay to be sold by a dedicated in-house team. The trade-off is that eBay keeps 20% of the sale price if those items sell. eBay is not acquiring other Twice assets, such as warehouses. The deal, announced Monday afternoon, comes the same day that eBay’s spun-off payments arm, PayPal Holdings , began trading as a separate public entity. Shares of eBay ticked up 2.9% to $28.71 in recent trade.

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To celebrate the re-opening of the Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C. Monday, home-sharing site Airbnb announced that it would cover the cost for all guests who booked a stay in Cuba this week. Airbnb had announced in April that it would expand its offerings to Cuba. Netflix has also expanded into the country. A travel embargo for U.S. citizens is still in place, meaning travelers have to be approved by the Office of Foreign Assets Control to visit Cuba.

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SolarCity Corp. Chief Executive Lyndon Rive said he was “happy” about the merger between Vivint Solar Inc. and SunEdison Inc. as he expects a Vivint under SunEdison will step up its solar advocacy efforts. “Vivint hasn’t invested at all in policy … it was disappointing” since the company is the No. 2 provider of residential solar panels, Rive said. “Solar is a disruptive technology, we are fighting the monopolies all the time and we need the entire industry to support” education of markets, power commissions, and governments, he said. SolarCity is the top U.S. residential solar-power provider. Shares of SolarCity rose 8.4% Monday, and shares of Vivint skyrocketed 45% on news of the merger. SunEdison and its spinoff TerraForm Power are buying Vivint for $2.2 billion in cash, stock, and debt. A TerraForm subsidiary will buy Vivint residential solar portfolio from SunEdison for $922 million. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

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Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its credit rating on debt issued by Puerto Rico Public Finance Corp. in 2011 and 2012 from “CCC-” to “CC” Thursday. The ratings agency said a default on those bonds is “a virtual certainty” when the next payment comes due on Aug. 1. Puerto Rico’s legislature did not allot for debt-service payments in its budget for the 2016 fiscal year, which S&P said was the reason for its downgrade. The credit-ratings firm put the rest of outstanding debt issued by the island commonwealth on a negative creditwatch. Puerto Rico’s government has recently asked creditors to join a discussion about restructuring its debt.

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Gold futures fell Monday for an eighth session in a row, settling at their lowest level in more than five years. Analysts cite a combination of factors for the price decline, including a lack of safe-haven demand and disappointing data on Chinese gold reserves. August gold dropped $25.10, or 2.2%, to settle at $1,106.80 an ounce for the Comex session. That was the lowest settlement for a most-active contract since March 30, 2010.

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The European Central Bank confirmed in a tweet that Greece made a 4.2 billion euro ($4.6 billion) bond repayment that was due Monday. Greece also cleared around 2 billion euros in arrears with the International Monetary Fund. Greece received a bridge loan from the European Union that allowed it to make the payments.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – There is “more than a 50% probability” that the U.S. central bank will raise short-term interest rates in September, said James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, on Monday. In an interview with the Fox Business Network, Bullard said the Fed’s meeting next week “might be a little early” for a move and the central bankers will use that time to “assess” the data. “If you look at [Fed chairwoman Janet] Yellen’s testimony in Washington last week, she talked a lot about how you should try to be gradual – you know, go earlier, but be gradual and I think that certainly is my view and maybe the committee will come around to that view and go that way,” Bullard said. He said it was important for the Fed to not let inflation get out of hand. “If you get behind the curve in central banking, it’s not pretty,” he said. Bullard will not be a voting member of the Fed policy committee until 2016.

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The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF crashed to the lowest price in its more-than-nine-year history, with all 39 of its stock components falling more than 3% on Monday, as gold prices extended their tumble to multiyear lows. The GDX, down 6.9% in midday trade on volume that is already more than the full-day average, has now lost 19% so far this month, and 27% over the past three months. Among some of the GDX’s most heavily-weighted U.S.-listed components, shares of Goldcorp Inc. shed 7.7%, Newmont Mining Corp. dropped 8.8%, Barrick Gold Corp. plunged 10% and Agnico Eagle Mines slid 7.2%. Each of those stock have lost at least 15% this month, paced by Barrick’s 26% tumble. Meanwhile, the SPDR Gold ETF slumped 2.1% Monday, amid continued disappointment over China’s gold reserve data and concerns over a rising dollar, to the lowest price since March 2005.

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PayPal Holdings Inc. climbed on its first day of trading after its spinoff from e-commerce giant eBay Inc. , with analysts generally upbeat on the company. PayPal was started at overweight with a $48 price target at J.P. Morgan while Wells Fargo initiated coverage of the stock at outperform with a $43 to $45 stock valuation. PayPal shares rose 5.4% to $40.43 while eBay shares gained 2.1% to $28.50.

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