Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Surges Over 14%; Alder BioPharmaceuticals Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.45% to 27,096.43 while the NASDAQ fell 0.27% to 8,154.22. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.3% to 2,998.25.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 3.7% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SemGroup Corporation SEMG, up 62%, and California Resources Corporation CRC, up 35%.

In trading on Monday, materials shares fell 1.7%.

Top Headline

Saudi Arabia suffered a drone strike at its Abqaiq crude oil processing facility over the weekend, which happens to be the "most critical" piece of infrastructure in the country. The price of Brent crude and WTI oil traded higher by around 10% Monday morning.

The Abqaiq facility handles half of all Saudi Arabia's oil production and helps supply the global oil market. Around 5 million barrels per day will be impacted from the drone attack which represents around 5% of the total global supply.

Saudi Arabia's government continues to assess the damage and any timeline to a full return are not clear. The Wall Street Journal reported Saudi Arabia could restore one-third of the disrupted production within hours.

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Equities Trading UP

Alder BioPharmaceuticals, Inc. ALDR shares shot up 83% to $18.44 after Danish company Lundbeck announced plans to acquire Alder BioPharmaceuticals in a deal valued at around $2 billion.

Shares of SemGroup Corporation SEMG got a boost, shooting up 62% to $16.67 following news Energy Transfer will buy the company in a $5 billion deal.

Yuma Energy, Inc. YUMA shares were also up, gaining 61% to $5.35 on heightened tensions following an attack on a Saudi Arabian oil field by Iran. NOTE: The strike on the oil field has disrupted about half of Saudi Arabia's oil production equivalent to 5% of the daily global oil supply.

Equities Trading DOWN

Coda Octopus Group, Inc. CODA shares tumbled 13% to $9.39 after the company reported downbeat Q3 results.

Shares of Construction Partners, Inc. ROAD were down 8% to $14.49 after reporting a 5 million share common stock offering.

Endurance International Group Holdings, Inc. EIGI was down, falling 22% to $4.42 after Constant Contact, an Endurance International, announced plans to expand its email marketing platform.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 14.3% to $62.69, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,508.50.

Silver traded up 2.2% Monday to $17.95, while copper fell 2.2% to $2.639.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.58%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.94%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.96%. Meanwhile, the German DAX fell 0.71% and the French CAC 40 declined 0.94% while UK shares fell 0.63%.

Economics

The NY Empire State manufacturing index dropped 2.8 points to a reading of 2 in September. However, economists were projecting a reading of 4.