Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Trade in Swing-Prone Session as J.C. Penney Rallies

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.55 percent to 16,456.23 while the NASDAQ rose 0.08 percent to 4,078.85. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.35 percent to 1,869.56.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Telecommunications services shares gained around 0.83 percent in the US market on Monday. Top gainers in the sector included China Telecom Corp. CHA,Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS TKC, and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited CHU. In trading on Monday, basic materials shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.75 percent.

Top decliners in the sector included Newmont Mining NEM, off 6.3 percent, and Eagle Materials EXP, down 4.3 percent.

Top Headline
Forest Laboratories FRX announced its plans to buy Furiex Pharmaceuticals FURX for up to $1.46 billion. Forest will pay around $95 per share, or around $1.1 billion in cash. Forest Labs will also pay up to $30 per share, or around $360 million in a contingent value right. The deal is projected to close in the second or third quarter of 2014.

Equities Trading UP
Susser Holdings SUSS shares shot up 35.74 percent to $77.41 after Energy Transfer Partners LP ETP announced its plans to acquire Susser Holdings in a deal valued at around $1.8 billion.

J.C. Penney JCP was also on the rise, gaining 10.78 percent to $8.84 after the company after Calvin Klein parent PVH corporation stated at a conference that the company was strong and ‘ahead of time”.

AstraZeneca PLC AZN shares were also up, gaining 11.23 percent to $76.37 following the rejection of Pfizer's PFE $76.62 per share bid.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group EDU were 8.55 percent to $23.76 after the company reported FQ3 results. New Oriental's quarterly net income surged 50.2% y/y to US$42.1 million versus US$28.0 million.

Sohu.com SOHU shares tumbled 7.59 percent to $53.60 after the company reported a Q1 adjusted loss of $1.26 per share on revenue of $365.0 million.

Plug Power PLUG also took a hit on Monday's session, falling 14.53 percent to $4.60 after the company continued its sell off after pricing its 22.6 million share offering Friday morning at $5.50 per share.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.20 percent to $100.80, while gold traded down 0.25 percent to $1,297.70.

Silver traded down 0.54 percent Monday to $19.63, while copper fell 0.16 percent to $3.09.

Eurozone
European shares were higher today.

The Spanish Ibex Index surged 0.10 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 0.65 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX surged 0.35 percent and the French CAC 40 rose 0.30 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.30 percent.

Economics
The pending home sales index increased 3.4% to a reading of 97.4 in March from 94.2 in February, the National Association of Realtors said. However, economists were expecting a 1% gain.

The Dallas Fed general business activity index rose to 11.70 in April, versus a prior reading of 4.90. However, economists were expecting a reading of 6.00.