Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Icahn Enterprises Raises Offer For Federal Mogul

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 1.32 percent to 17,907.67 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.31 percent to 4,863.31. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.18 percent to 2,095.55.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Monday, financial shares rose by 2 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Lloyds Banking Group PLC (ADR) LYG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC RBS.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares gained by just 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included RGC Resources Inc. RGCO, down 4 percent, and Duke Energy Corp DUK, down 1 percent.

Top Headline

Icahn Enterprises L.P. IEP revealed Monday that it was ready to pay $8.00 a share to acquire the remaining portion of the shares of Federal-Mogul Holdings Corp FDML. This is lower than the Friday's closing price of $8.15.

Icahn Enterprises indicated that on February 28, it offered to buy the remaining shares of Federal-Mogul common stock not owned by it in a merger transaction following which Federal-Mogul shareholders would get $7.00 per share in cash for their Federal-Mogul shares.

Equities Trading UP

• Lpath, Inc. LPTN shares shot up 77 percent to $3.69 as the company reported that it has been awarded a $1.45 million 2-year grant for traumatic brain injury pain study.
• Shares of Fate Therapeutics Inc FATE got a boost, shooting up 10 percent to $1.84 as the company reported the FDA Fast Track designation for ProTmune.

• Neovasc Inc (US) NVCN shares were also up, gaining 45 percent to $1.11 as the company reported that positive results for Reducer system treatment for refractory angina were published in The Netherlands Heart Journal.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc EGRX shares dropped 6 percent to $42.07. Mizuho Securities downgraded Eagle Pharmaceuticals to Neutral.
• Shares of Epizyme Inc EPZM were down 8 percent to $10.48 after the company reported early data from global Phase 2 trial of tazemetostat in non-hodgkin lymphoma.
• Cypress Semiconductor Corporation CY was down, falling around 4 percent to $10.19. Cypress reported a proposed $250 million convertible notes offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.83 percent to $48.86 while gold traded down 0.82 percent to $1,284.20.

Silver traded down 0.03 percent Monday to $17.41, while copper rose 1.22 percent to $2.08.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 3.63 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 5.19 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 2.70 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 3.51 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 3.51 percent, while U.K. shares rose 3.38 percent.

Economics

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari is scheduled to speak in Washington.

The Treasury will auction 2-year notes.