Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges Over 200 Points; Microbot Medical Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.64% to 36,181.37 while the NASDAQ rose 1.19% to 15,838.88. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.07% to 4,776.31.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 53,222,420 cases with around 837,850 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,793,330 cases and 479,990 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,239,430 COVID-19 cases with 618,480 deaths. In total, there were at least 280,391,180 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,418,560 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 1.7% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American Virtual Cloud Technologies, Inc. AVCT, up 24% and Soluna Holdings, Inc. SLNH up 11%.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

News Corp NWS agreed to acquire the Base Chemicals business for $295 million cash from S&P Global Inc SPGI and IHS Markit Ltd INFO.

Equities Trading UP

Microbot Medical Inc. MBOT shares shot up 48% to $8.00 after the company announced a strategic collaboration with Stryker Corporation to develop the LIBERTY robotic system for neurovascular applications.

Shares of PyroGenesis Canada Inc. PYR got a boost, shooting 90% to $4.7947.

CPI Aerostructures, Inc. CVU shares were also up, gaining 11% to $2.52 after the company swung to a profit in the first quarter.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. BBIO shares tumbled 70% to $12.02 after the company's phase 3 trial to treat symptomatic transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy did not achieve its primary endpoint.

Shares of BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. BVXV were down 16% to $2.34 after the company priced an offering of roughly 3.81 million ADSs at $2.36 per ADS.

TRACON Pharmaceuticals, Inc. TCON was down, falling 21% to $2.8661. The company announced results from the Independent Data Monitoring Committee review of interim safety and efficacy data from the ongoing ENVASARC pivotal trial.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.6% to $75.72, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,810.10.

Silver traded up 0.5% Monday to $23.045 while copper rose 2.2% to $4.4875.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.62%, the Spanish Ibex Index surged 0.68% and the German DAX 40 gained 0.50%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 climbed 0.76% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.80%.

Economics

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' general business activity index for manufacturing in Texas dropped to 8.1 in December from 11.8 a month ago.

Check out the full economic calendar here