Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Schwab, TD Ameritrade Confirm $26B Merger

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.48% to 28010.61 while the NASDAQ rose 1.02% to 8606.57. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.61% to 3,129.34.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ideanomics Inc IDEX, up 12%, and Zscaler Inc ZS, up 6%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

Charles Schwab SCHW will acquire TD Ameritrade AMTD for $26 billion, the companies confirmed on Monday. Reports of the acquisition first broke last Thursday.

Charles Schwab will pay approximately 1.0837 Schwab shares for each TD Ameritrade share.

Equities Trading UP

JanOne Inc. JAN shares shot up 107% to $5.28 after the company announced it purchased a worldwide exclusive license for TV1001SR, a treatment for peripheral arterial disease. No terms were disclosed.

Shares of The Peck Company Holdings, Inc. PECK got a boost, shooting up 78% to $4.08.

Sorrento Therapeutics Inc SRNE shares were also up, gaining 44% to $2.30 after the company announced it has received and rejected an unsolicited, all cash proposal from two biopharmaceutical companies between $3-$5 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

CymaBay Therapeutics Inc CBAY shares tumbled 75% to $1.38 after the company reported a halt in the clinical development of its Seladelpar.

Shares of La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company LJPC were down 51% to $2.76 after the company reported that President and CEO George Tidmarsh has left the company. La Jolla Pharmaceutical disclosed that it will reassess continued development of LJPC-401 based on recent clinical results.

BlueLinx Holdings Inc. BXC was down, falling 34% to $8.15.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $57.71, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,454.50.

Silver traded down 0.8% Monday to $16.87, while copper fell 0.1% to $2.6475.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.8%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.9%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.8%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.5%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.4% while UK shares rose 1%.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index dropped to a reading of -0.71 in October, compared to -0.45 in the prior month. However, economists were expecting a reading of -0.43.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index for November will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

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

The Treasury will auction 2-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to speak in Providence, Rhode Island at 7:00 p.m. ET.