US Stocks Mostly Higher; Dow Rises 75 Points

U.S. stocks traded mostly higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining around 75 points on Monday.

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.24% to 31,986.55 while the NASDAQ rose 0.24% to 11,165.62. The S&P 500, meanwhile, fell, dropping, 0.03% to 3,860.50.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Real estate shares rose by 1.9% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. UBA, up 4%, and Green Giant Inc. GGE, up 2%.
• In trading on Monday, financials shares dipped by 2.7%.

Top Headline

Bluegreen Vacations Holding Corporation BVH reported results for the fourth quarter.

Bluegreen Vacations posted adjusted earnings of $0.61 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.56 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $237.97 million versus expectations of $208.46 million.

Equities Trading UP

• Provention Bio, Inc. PRVB shares shot up 249% to $23.35 after Sanofi announced it will acquire the company for $25 per share in cash.
• Shares of Clearmind Medicine Inc. CMND got a boost, shooting 44% to $4.94.
• Calliditas Therapeutics AB CALT shares were also up, gaining 33% to $22.58 after the company announced the primary endpoint was successfully met in the Phase 2 NefIgArd trial evaluating Nefecon in IgA nephropathy.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Western Alliance Bancorporation WAL shares tumbled 80% to $9.68. Shares of several bank stocks traded lower following the recent closure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, the largest bank failures since 2008.
• Shares of First Republic Bank FRC were down 68% to $26.45 after the company said it improved its liquidity profile by increasing its borrowing facility from the Federal Reserve and JP Morgan.
• Customers Bancorp, Inc. CUBI was down, falling 54% to $10.49. Shares of several bank stocks traded lower following the recent closure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, the largest bank failures since 2008.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.5% to $74.03 while gold traded up 2.2% at $1,908.20.

Silver traded up 5.5% to $21.635 on Monday while copper fell 0.7% to $4.0015.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 2.3%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 3.2%. The German DAX dropped 2.8% French CAC 40 fell 2.6% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 3.8%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 1.11%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 1.95% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1.20%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex fell 1.5%.

The business survey index of large manufacturing firms in Japan declined to -10.5% in the first quarter compared to -3.6% in the earlier quarter.

Economics

There were no major US economic releases Monday.

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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 105,602,990 cases with around 1,148,780 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,690,930 cases and 530,780 deaths, while France reported over 39,655,930 COVID-19 cases with 165,160 deaths. In total, there were at least 681,567,040 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,811,980 deaths.