Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Up Over 100 Points; Seven Stars Cloud Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.41 percent to 25,773.40 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.16 percent to 7,828.83. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.28 percent to 2,858.19.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday afternoon, the industrials shares rose 0.80 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Grindrod Shipping Holdings Ltd. GRIN up 49 percent, and ExOne Co XONE up 6 percent.

In trading on Monday, telecommunication services shares fell 0.40 percent.

Top Headline

Rumors of a merger between PepsiCo, Inc. PEP and Sodastream International Ltd SODA date back to at least 2014 and were finally confirmed Monday.

PepsiCo said it reached an agreement to buy Israel-based Sodastream for $144 per share, which represents a 32-percent premium to the 30-day volume weighted average price, the companies said in a press release. The transaction is expected to improve Sodastream's expansion and breakthrough innovation through PepsiCo's distribution capabilities, global reach, R&D, design and marketing expertise.

Equities Trading UP

Seven Stars Cloud Group, Inc. SSC shares shot up 68 percent to $3.32 after announcing a $24 billion deal to conduct financing activities for National Transportation Capacity Co Ltd.

Shares of China Commercial Credit, Inc. GLG got a boost, shooting up 34 percent to $0.7890 after the company late Friday reported positive Q2 earnings compared with a loss last year.

Cheetah Mobile Inc. CMCM shares were also up, gaining 22 percent to $11.0598 after the company posted upbeat Q2 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Lannett Company, Inc. LCI shares dropped 60 percent to $5.35 after the company issued weak forecast for the fourth quarter. The company also disclosed that its contract Jerome Stevens Pharma will not be renewed.

Shares of NF Energy Saving Corporation NFEC were down 22 percent to $4.35.

YogaWorks, Inc. YOGA was down, falling around 11 percent to $1.05. Cowen & Co. downgraded Yogaworks from Outperform to Market Perform.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.83 percent to $66.46 while gold traded up 0.93 percent to $1,195.20.

Silver traded up 0.30 percent Monday to $14.675, while copper rose 1.28 to $2.6815.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 jumped 0.57 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.54 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.27 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.99 percent, and the French CAC 40 surged 0.65 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.43 percent.

Economics

On the economics calendar Monday, there is no important data due out.