Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Jumps 7%; Nam Tai Property Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 1.31% to 28045.99 while the NASDAQ rose 1.68% to 11260.83. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.36% to 3,394.04.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 7,418,730 cases with around 209,730 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 6,623,810 confirmed cases and 102,680 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,915,280 COVID-19 cases with 146,350 deaths. In total, there were at least 35,220,160 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,037,600 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares jumped 2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Piedmont Lithium Limited PLL, up 19%, and Livent Corporation LTHM, up 14%.

In trading on Monday, real estate shares fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY announced plans to acquire MyoKardia for $13.1 billion in cash to expand its heart-drugs offering.

Equities Trading UP

MyoKardia, Inc. MYOK shares shot up 58% to $220.53 after Bristol-Myers Squibb announced a multi-billion dollar deal to buy cardio-focused biopharma Myokardia.

Shares of Eidos Therapeutics, Inc. EIDX got a boost, shooting 41% to $73.15 after the company announced it would be acquired by BridgeBio for $73.26 per share.

Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CRVS shares were also up, gaining 28% to $5.20 after the company announced positive early results from a study of its potential COVID-19 treatment.

Equities Trading DOWN

Nam Tai Property Inc. NTP shares tumbled 24% to $7.16 as the company raised $170 million through private placement transaction.

Shares of Cinemark Holdings, Inc. CNK were down 17% to $8.33 after a competing movie theater operator, Regal Entertainment, closed all of its US locations due to a lack of big-ticket movies.

DPW Holdings, Inc. DPW was down, falling 11% to $2.01 after the company disclosed an offering of its common stock for $8.975 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 7% to $39.63, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,921.80.

Silver traded up 2.1% Monday to $24.540 while copper fell 0.8% to $2.9545.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today on hopes of stimulus before the US elections and an improvement in President Trump’s health. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.84%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.25%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.04%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 1.15%, French CAC 40 rose 0.98% and London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.79%.

French services PMI tumbled to 47.5 in September versus a reading of 51.5 in the earlier month.

Economics

The IHS Markit services PMI slipped to 54.6 in September versus previous month’s reading of 55.0.

The ISM non-manufacturing PMI climbed to 57.8 in September versus a reading of 56.9 in August.