Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises 150 Points; Sorrento Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.55% to 28028.99 while the NASDAQ rose 1.21% to 8,623.29. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.63% to 3,129.92.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 1.3% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ideanomics Inc IDEX, up 30%, and GlobalSCAPE, Inc. GSB, up 14%.

In trading on Monday, utilities 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 51% to $3.84 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 Medicines Company MDCO got a boost, shooting up 22% to $83.8 2.90503 after the company announced it will be acquired by Novartis AG for $85 per share.

Sorrento Therapeutics Inc SRNE shares were also up, gaining 82% to $2.9050 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 76% to $1.3250 after the company reported a halt in the clinical development of its Seladelpar.

Shares of La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company LJPC were down 52% to $2.6650 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.

Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corporation ADMP was down, falling 51% to $0.6115 after the company reported it received a complete response letter from the FDA for its ZIMHI. The FDA stated it cannot approve the ZIMHI in its present form and provided suggested needed for resubmission.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $57.98, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,455.40.

Silver traded down 0.8% Monday to $16.8, while copper fell 0.1% to $2.647.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.02%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.7%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.89%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.63%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.54% while UK shares rose 0.95%.

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.

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