Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges 260 Points; Varian Medical Systems Shares Climb

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.98% to 26688.62 while the NASDAQ rose 1.62% to 10,919.64. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.91% to 3,300.92.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 4,668,330 cases with around 154,860 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 2,733,670 COVID-19 cases with 94,100 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 1,803,690 confirmed cases and 38,130 deaths. In total, there were at least 18,109,900 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 690,050 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares gained 2.6% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included PowerFleet, Inc. PWFL, up 20%, and Xunlei Limited XNET, up 17%.

In trading on Monday, real estate shares tumbled by 1.4%.

Top Headline

Tyson Foods, Inc. TSN reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates.

The company reported quarterly earnings of $1.40 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $0.91 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $10.02 billion, missing analysts’ estimates of $10.51 billion.

Tyson Foods named Dean Banks as CEO of the company.

Equities Trading UP

ADT Inc. ADT shares shot up 64% to $14.13 after the company announced entering into a long-term partnership with Alphabet Inc. to create a smart home security offerings. Google will invest $450 million in the company for 6.6% ownership.

Shares of Jernigan Capital, Inc. JCAP got a boost, shooting 22% to $17.16 after the company announced it would be acquired by NexPoint Advisors for $17.30 per share in cash.

Varian Medical Systems, Inc. VAR shares were also up, gaining 21% to $173.29 after the company announced on Sunday it will be acquired by Siemens Healthineers for $177.50 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Quotient Limited QTNT shares tumbled 8% to $7.20 after the company reported Q1 results and issued weak FY2021 sales forecast.

Shares of Tiziana Life Sciences PLC TLSA were down 22% to $5.43 after the company priced its 11 million ADS registered direct offering at $5.20 per ADS.

VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. VTGN was down, falling 17% to $0.7750 after the company announced a proposed common stock offering of 15.6 million shares at $0.80 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2% to $41.08, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,990.20.

Silver traded up 1.1% Monday to $24.47, while copper rose 1.5% to $2.912.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 2.05%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.42%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.51%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 2.71%, French CAC 40 rose 1.93% and UK shares rose 2.29%.

Economics

U.S. manufacturing PMI rose to 50.90 for July, from June's final reading of 49.80. However, analysts expected a reading of 51.30.

U.S. construction spending fell 0.7% to an adjusted annual rate of $1.355 trillion in June.

The ISM manufacturing PMI climbed to 54.2 in July, versus 52.6 in the prior month.