Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; News Corp To Buy Base Chemicals

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.39% to 36,089.53 while the NASDAQ rose 0.78% to 15,774.78. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.70% to 4,758.97.

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 1.2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American Virtual Cloud Technologies, Inc. AVCT, up 33% and Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. SDIG up 7%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares rose by just 0.1%.

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 57% to $8.51 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 28% to $3.2438.

Reliance Global Group, Inc. RELI shares were also up, gaining 24% to $5.36. Reliance Global Group recently announced pricing of $20.0 million private placement with institutional investors.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. BBIO shares tumbled 71% to $11.66 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 20% to $2.21 after the company priced an offering of roughly 3.81 million ADSs at $2.36 per ADS.

Pasithea Therapeutics Corp. KTTA was down, falling 16% to $1.6950 after jumping more than 36% on Thursday. Pasithea recently said it expanded its footprint with second Ketamine Therapy Clinic in the UK.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $73.82, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,811.20.

Silver traded up 0.3% Monday to $23.010 while copper rose 0.1% to $4.3980.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.5%, the Spanish Ibex Index surged 0.6% and the German DAX 40 gained 0.4%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.1%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.7%.

 

Economics

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index for December is scheduled for release at 10:00 a.m. ET. The index is expected to drop to 9.5 in December from previous month’s reading of 11.8.

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.

Check out the full economic calendar here