Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher; Nvidia To Buy Mellanox Technologies For $6.9B

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.1 percent to 25,424.01 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.15 percent to 7,493.41. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.6 percent to 2,765.13.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the information technology shares rose 1.5 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included USA Technologies, Inc. USAT up 9 percent, and CLPS Inc CLPS up 12 percent.

In trading on Monday, industrial shares fell 0.1 percent.

Top Headline

Israel-based Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. MLNX reached an agreement to sell itself to U.S.-based Nvidia Corporation NVDA for $6.9 billion, or $125 per share in cash.

Mellanox confirmed it will merge with Nvidia to create a new business that will power over 250 of the world's TOP500 supercomputers.

Equities Trading UP

Axovant Sciences Ltd AXGT shares got a boost, shooting up 51 percent to $2.23 after the company's AXO-AAV-GM2 gene therapy showed no serious adverse events in a Tay-Sachs patient and was well tolerated. Patient condition was stable from baseline to month 3.

Shares of Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. APOP shot up 19 percent to $1.2250 after the company reported preliminary results from its collaboration with Cell2in. Results demonstrated that Cellect's ApoGraft technology enabled 'improved quality' stem cell production at a lower cost.

Globus Maritime Limited GLBS shares were also up, gaining 55 percent to $6.88 after surging 33.94 percent on Friday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Quorum Health Corporation QHC shares dropped 24 percent to $1.7750. Big Lots will replace Quorum Health in the S&P SmallCap 600 on Monday, March 18.

Shares of OHR Pharmaceutical, Inc. OHRP were down 11 percent to $2.26 after reporting agreements for $9 million financing.

The Boeing Company BA was down, falling around 8 percent to $387.17 after one of the company's 737 MAX 8 planes crashed while transporting Ethiopian Airlines passengers. Some airline companies around the globe grounded their fleets of MAX 8 planes.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7 percent to $56.46 while gold traded down 0.3 percent to $1,295.20.

Silver traded down 0.2 percent Monday to $15.315, while copper rose 0.2 percent to $2.8995.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.6 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.1 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.3 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.3 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.2 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.3 percent.

Economics

U.S. retail sales rose 0.2 percent for January.

U.S. business inventories increased 0.6 percent for December, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.6 percent rise.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to speak in Washington, DC at 7:00 p.m. ET.