Nasdaq Jumps 300 Points; Bank of America Tops Q3 Estimates

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 300 points on Monday.

The Dow traded up 1.63% to 30,116.47 while the NASDAQ rose 3.01% to 10,631.71. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 2.41% to 3,669.36.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 3.9% on Monday. Leading the sector was strength from Seritage Growth Properties SRG and Doma Holdings Inc. DOMA.

In trading on Monday, consumer staples shares rose by just 1.2%.

Top Headline

Bank of America BAC reported better-than-expected Q3 results.

Bank of America posted quarterly earnings of $0.81 per share, topping market estimates of $0.77 per share. The bank’s quarterly sales came in at $24.50 billion, exceeding expectations of $23.60 billion.

Equities Trading UP

• Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. ACOR shares shot up 81% to $0.62 after the company announced a $16.5 million award and royalty/supply relief in the AMPYRA arbitration case.
• Shares of Archaea Energy Inc. LFG got a boost, shooting 53% to $25.83 after the company announced it will be acquired by BP for approximately $4.1 billion.
• Babylon Holdings Limited BBLN shares were also up, gaining 30% to $0.4803 after reporting a private placement financing.

Equities Trading DOWN

• NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. NGM shares tumbled 73% to $3.13 after the company announced topline efficacy and safety results from its CATALINA Phase 2 trial of NGM621 for geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Over 52 weeks of treatment, NGM621 administered every four weeks (Q4W) (n=108) and every eight weeks (Q8W) (n=104) demonstrated a GA lesion area reduction of 6.3% and 6.5%, respectively, compared to sham (n=106), which did not reach statistical significance in either arm.
• Shares of Fox Corporation FOX were down 7% to $26.98 after the company said it formed a special committee to explore a potential combination with News Corporation.
• Minerva Neurosciences, Inc. NERV was down, falling 61% to $5.25 after the company received a refusal to file letter from the FDA regarding its marketing application for roluperidone for negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $86.30, while gold traded up 1.1% at $1,667.40.

Silver traded up 3% to $18.62 on Monday while copper fell 0.2% to $3.4170.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.86%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.99% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index jumped 2.41%. The German DAX climbed 1.7%, French CAC 40 rose 1.79% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.83%.

The annual inflation rate in Italy accelerated to 8.9% in September, the highest level in around 37 years, compared to 8.4% in the prior month.

Economics

The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index fell 7.6 points to -9.1 in October, versus market estimates of -4.0.

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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 98,850,120 cases with around 1,090,530 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,630,880 cases and 528,900 deaths, while France reported over 36,258,600 COVID-19 cases with 155,810 deaths. In total, there were at least 630,019,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,571,720 deaths.