Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Dow Gains 100 Points

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones adding around 100 points on Monday.

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.29% to 34,550.93 while the NASDAQ rose 0.38% to 13,401.15. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.30% to 4,405.72.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 0.9% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Camber Energy, Inc. CEI, up 17% and Hallador Energy Company HNRG up 12%.

In trading on Monday, health care shares fell 0.8%.

Top Headline

Bank of America Corp BAC reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

The bank reported quarterly earnings of $0.80 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.74 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $23.20 billion, versus expectations of $23.11 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Casa Systems, Inc. CASA shares shot up 67% to $6.48 after the company announced a multi-year contract with Verizon to provide 5G core network functions.

Shares of Natus Medical Incorporated NTUS got a boost, shooting 29% to $33.53 after the company announced it will be acquired by ArchiMed Group for $33.50 per share in cash.

AgriFORCE Growing Systems, Ltd. AGRI shares were also up, gaining 29% to $2.8580.

Equities Trading DOWN

Nektar Therapeutics NKTR shares tumbled 35% to $3.9950. Nektar Therapeutics and Bristol Myers Squibb Co jointly decided to end the global clinical development program for bempegaldesleukin in combination with Opdivo. Goldman Sachs downgraded Nektar Therapeutics from Neutral to Sell and announced a $3 price target.

Shares of Gaucho Group Holdings, Inc. VINO were down 23% to $1.85. Gaucho Group recently reported FY21 revenues of $4.9 million.

TG Therapeutics, Inc. TGTX was down, falling 21% to $6.98 after the company announced it has voluntarily withdrawn the BLA/sNDA for U2 for the treatment of adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $107.98, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,988.20.

Silver traded up 1.9% Monday to $26.185 while copper rose 2.1% to $4.8220.

Euro zone

Most of the European markets are closed today for the Easter Monday holiday.

Economics

The NAHB housing market index declined to 77 in April from 79 in March.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard will speak at 4:00 p.m. ET.

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 82,316,340 cases with around 1,015,450 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,044,280 cases and 521,960 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,252,610 COVID-19 cases with 662,010 deaths. In total, there were at least 504,828,550 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,223,530 deaths.