Nasdaq Rises Over 1%; Hostess Brands Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 1% on Monday.

The Dow traded up 0.29% to 34,676.52 while the NASDAQ rose 1.16% to 13,920.60. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.66% to 4,486.98.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 2.6% on Monday.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell by 1.3%.

Top Headline

JM Smucker SJM has announced an acquisition of Hostess Brands TWNK that is expected to be completed April 30, 2024.

Under the terms of the agreement, JM Smucker has agreed to give Hostess Brands $5.60 billion in cash & stock in exchange for TWNK stock.

Equities Trading UP

Hostess Brands, Inc. TWNK shares shot up 19% to $33.54 after J.M. Smucker announced it will acquire the company.

Shares of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CRNX got a boost, shooting 64% to $26.27 after the company's once-daily oral paltusotine achieved the primary and secondary endpoints in the Phase 3 PATHFNDR-1 study in acromegaly.

Avantax, Inc. AVTA shares were also up, gaining 29% to $25.64 as the company agreed to be acquired by Cetera Holdings for $26 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

SigmaTron International, Inc. SGMA shares dropped 50% to $3.78 after the company released first-quarter earnings.

Shares of Tenon Medical, Inc. TNON were down 38% to $0.1551 after the company announced proposed public offering of common stock.

Granite Ridge Resources, Inc. GRNT was down, falling 17% to $6.21. Granite Ridge Resources launched a secondary public offering of 7.1 million shares by selling stockholders.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $87.52 while gold traded up 0.2% at $1,946.90.

Silver traded up 0.9% to $23.385 on Monday while copper rose 2.4% to $3.8060.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.34% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.25% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.75% The German DAX rose 0.39% French CAC 40 rose 0.52%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.03%.

Industrial production in Italy fell 0.7% from a month ago in July versus a 0.5% growth in the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.43%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.58% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.84%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.5%.

China's consumer prices increased by 0.1% year-over-year in August compared to market views of a 0.2% gain, while producer prices fell 3.0% year-over-year in August following a 4.4% decline a month ago. China's vehicle sales jumped by 8.4% year-over-year to 2.582 million units in August versus a 1.4% fall in the prior month, while total social financing increased to CNY 3.12 trillion in August from CNY 0.53 trillion a month ago. Japan's machine tool orders declined 17.6% year-over-year to JPY 114,746 million in August.

Economics

There were no major US economic releases Monday.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 108,296,300 cases with around 1,174,580 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,997,710 cases and 531,930 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 695,108,160 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,914,370 deaths.