Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises 100 Points; Maxwell Technologies Shares Jump Following Tesla Deal

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.41 percent to 25,167.07 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.99 percent to 7,335.93. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.45 percent to 2,718.75.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday afternoon, the information technology shares climbed 1.4 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Maxwell Technologies Inc. MXWL up 49 percent, and The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. ULTI up 20 percent.

In trading on Monday, health care shares fell 0.6 percent.

Top Headline

Clorox Co CLX reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and reaffirmed full year EPS guidance.

Clorox delivered earnings of $1.40 per share, beating estimates of $1.31 per share. The company’s revenue came in at $1.473 billion, versus estimates of $1.47 billion.

Equities Trading UP

BioLineRx Ltd. BLRX shares got a boost, shooting up 24 percent to $0.7920 after the company received Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA for BL-8040 for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Shares of Top Image Systems Ltd. TISA shot up 54 percent to $0.8247 after the company entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Kofax for $0.86 per share in cash.

Maxwell Technologies Inc. MXWL shares were also up, gaining 49 percent to $4.5750 after Tesla Inc TSLA announced plans to acquire Maxwell Technologies for $4.75 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Check Cap Ltd CHEK shares dropped 29 percent to $2.44 after the company announced an equity offering of 2.91 million shares and warrant units at $2.58 per unit for a total of $7.5 million..

Shares of Medley Management Inc. MDLY were down 21 percent to $3.89 after Nexpoint Advisors proposed merger transaction to Sierra Income Corporation and Medley Capital Corporation boards.

Triton International Limited TRTN was down, falling around 10 percent to $32.20 after Bank of America downgraded the stock from Buy to Underperform and lowered the price target from $35 to $32.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.45 percent to $54.46 while gold traded down 0.29 percent to $1,318.30.

Silver traded down 0.35 percent Monday to $15.875, while copper rose 0.9 percent to $2.798.

Eurozone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.06 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.49 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.15 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.04 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.38 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.2 percent.

Economics

U.S. factory orders declined 0.6 percent for November.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester is set to speak in Cleveland, Ohio at 7:30 p.m. ET.