Gold Drops Over 1%; First Citizens BancShares Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining over 100 points on Monday.

The Dow traded up 0.42% to 32,372.55 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01% to 11,825.46. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.24% to 3,980.71.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Financials shares jumped by 0.9% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included First Citizens BancShares, Inc. FCNCA, up 46%, and First Republic Bank FRC, up 13%.
• In trading on Monday, communication services shares fell by 0.6%.

 

 

Top Headline

 

The Dallas Fed manufacturing business index fell to -15.7 in March, versus prior reading of -13.5.

 

Equities Trading UP

• First Citizens BancShares, Inc. FCNCA shares shot up 46% to $853.33 after First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company entered an agreement to purchase all deposits and loans of Silicon Valley Bank.
• Shares of Crown ElectroKinetics Corp. CRKN got a boost, shooting 45% to $0.2290 after the company announced its optics division added a third customer, expanding its US presence.
• Jounce Therapeutics, Inc. JNCE shares were also up, gaining 23% to $1.85. Jounce Therapeutics entered into agreement to be acquired by Concentra Biosciences for $1.85 in cash per share plus contingent value rights.

 

 

Equities Trading DOWN

• Unity Biotechnology, Inc. UBX shares dropped 48% to $2.1592 after the company said its phase 2 ENVISION study did not meet its non-inferiority threshold due to strength in the control group.
• Shares of Pharming Group N.V. PHAR were down 17% to $12.56. The FDA approved Pharming Group’s Joenja (leniolisib) for activated phosphoinositide 3-kinase delta (PI3Kδ) syndrome (APDS) in adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older.
• YS Biopharma Co., Ltd. YS was down, falling 15% to $4.06 after the company reported interim Phase 2 safety and immunogenicity data for its PIKA recombinant Covid-19 vaccine.

 

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Commodities

 

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.6% to $70.37 while gold traded down 1.4% at $1,956.40.

Silver traded down 0.7% to $23.185 on Monday while copper fell 0.7% to $4.0485.

 

Euro zone

 

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.19%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.95% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 1.29%. The German DAX gained 1.22%, French CAC 40 surged 0.98% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 1.3%.

Loans to households in the Eurozone increased 3.2% year-over-year to EUR 6.86 trillion in February. The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany climbed to 93.3 in March from 91.1 in the prior month. UK’s CBI distributive trades survey’s retail sales balance fell to +1 in March compared to a reading of +2 in the prior month.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

 

Asian markets closed mixed on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.33%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.75% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.44%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.2%.

Exports from Hong Kong dropped 8.8% year-over-year to $286.2 billion in February, while imports declined 4.1% year-over-year to $331.6 billion. The index of leading economic indicators in Japan rose to 96.6 in January versus a preliminary reading of 96.5, while index of coincident economic indicators climbed to 96.4 in January versus a flash reading of 96.1.

 

Economics

 

The Dallas Fed manufacturing business index fell to -15.7 in March, versus prior reading of -13.5.

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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 106,102,020 cases with around 1,153,730 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,705,950 cases and 530,830 deaths, while France reported over 39,758,760 COVID-19 cases with 165,460 deaths. In total, there were at least 683,336,060 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,826,960 deaths.