S&P 500 Gains 0.6%; Albireo Pharma Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 150 points on Monday.

The Dow traded up 0.14% to 33,678.48 while the NASDAQ rose 1.63% to 10,741.65. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.63% to 3,919.83.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares gained by 2.8% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Duck Creek Technologies, Inc. DCT, up 47%, and Bitfarms Ltd. BITF, up 34%.

In trading on Monday, health care shares fell by 0.5%.

Top Headline

Acuity Brands, Inc AYI reported better-than-expected earnings and sales results for its first quarter.

Acuity Brands reported first-quarter FY23 net sales growth of 7.8% year-over-year to $997.9 million, beating the consensus of $984.5 million. Adjusted EPS of $3.29 beat the consensus of $3.00.

Equities Trading UP

• CinCor Pharma, Inc. CINC shares shot up 147% to $29.04 after AstraZeneca announced it will acquire the company for $26 per share in cash.
• Shares of Amryt Pharma plc AMYT got a boost, shooting 108% to $14.60 after Chiesi Farmaceutici announced it will acquire the company for $14.50 per ADS plus contingent value rights of up to an additional $2.50 per ADS.
• Albireo Pharma, Inc. ALBO shares were also up, gaining 93% to $43.94 after Ipsen announced it will acquire the company for $42 per share plus a contingent value right of $10 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Calithera Biosciences, Inc. CALA shares tumbled 81% to $30.81. Calithera Biosciences announced board approval of complete liquidation and dissolution.
• Shares of Cutera, Inc. CUTR were down 24% to $30.81 after the company reported preliminary unaudited financial results for FY22. The company expects to report revenue in the range of $252 million to $253 million for FY22.
• Cerus Corporation CERS was down, falling 22% to $2.9350. Cerus sees preliminary Q4 product revenues of $44 million, up 10% year over year.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.6% to $74.98 while gold traded up 0.6% at $1,880.20.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $23.96 on Monday while copper rose 3.2% to $4.0375.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.88%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.33% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index slipped 0.07%. The German DAX gained 1.25%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.68% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.81%.

The Eurozone’s unemployment rate came in unchanged at 6.5% for November from the prior month's all-time low level, while unemployment rate in Italy declined to 7.8% in November.

France’s current account deficit increased to EUR 6.8 billion in November versus a revised EUR 3.4 billion in the prior month, while trade deficit increased to EUR 13.8 billion in November. Industrial production in Germany rose 0.2% month-over-month in November.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Monday, with the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 1.89%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index adding 0.58%.

Private house approvals in Australia declined 2.2% month-over-month to 9,142 units in November, while building permits declined by 9% month-over-month to 13,898 units in November.

Economics

Data on consumer credit for November will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 103,086,920 cases with around 1,121,090 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,681,170 cases and 530,720 deaths, while France reported over 39,407,720 COVID-19 cases with 162,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 668,796,070 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,714,170 deaths.