Benzinga Mid-Morning Market Update

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.14 percent to 13,347.02 while the NASDAQ rose 0.13 percent to 3,048.21. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.12 percent to 1,430.37. As a heads up for this week, pharmaceutical stocks are set to be even more volatile than normal leading up to an FDA panel meeting on drugs from three pharmaceutical companies: NPS Pharmaceuticals NSPS, Aegerion Pharmaceuticals AEGR, and Isis Pharmaceuticals ISIS Equities Trading UP Clearwire CLWR shot up 24.45 percent to $2.89 in early trading Monday after the offer from Softbank to buy a 70 percent stake in Sprint S became official this morning. Word that Sprint is still attempting to acquire the company have prompted traders to pour more money into the stock. Isis Pharmaceuticals ISIS traded up 4.94 percent to $13.27 Monday in anticipation of the FDA advisory panel meeting later this week. Shares of Citigroup C were also on the rise, trading up 3.45 percent to $35.95 after the company posted an earnings beat Monday morning. Equities Trading DOWN NPS Pharma NPSP fell 4.07 percent to $10.42 in early trading as investors brace for the FDA panel meeting this week. Consol Energy CNX was also down, falling 1.59 percent to $34.58 after the company issued guidance expecting a third-quarter loss due to idle mines. Commodities In commodity news, Oil traded down 1.44 percent to $90.54, while Gold traded down 1.29 percent to $1,737.00. Silver traded down 0.84 percent Friday Morning to $32.83. Euro Zone The Euro zone was fairly quiet Monday morning, besides the news of Scotland's push to break away from the United Kingdom. Economics There were a couple economic releases monday morning, the first being advanced retail sales, which came in at 1.1 percent, above the expected 0.8 percent, but slightly below the prior figure of 1.2 percent. Retail sales less autos came in at 1.1 percent as well, above the expected 0.6 percent, and slightly higher than the previously reported number 1 percent. Retail sales ex auto & gas came in at 0.9 percent, above the expected 0.4 percent, and significantly higher than the prior figure of 0.3 percent. Finally, the New York empire state manufacturing index came in at -6.16, below the expected -4, but slightly higher than the previous number of -10.41.