Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; JD Sports to Acquire Finish Line For $13.50/Share

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 1.79 percent to 23,955.26 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.76 percent to 7,115.53. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.65 percent to 2,631.06.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the information technology shares gained 2.55 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Travelport Worldwide Limited TVPT, up 10 percent, and Baozun Inc. BZUN, up 7 percent.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares rose by just 0.6 percent.

Top Headline

Finish Line Inc FINL agreed to sell itself to Europe-based JD Sports Fashion in a deal which values the company at $558 million.

JD Sports will pay $13.50 per share in cash for Finish Line, representing a 28 percent premium over Finish Line’s closing price on Friday.

Finish Line expects Q4 adjusted earnings of $0.58 to $0.59 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Finish Line, Inc. FINL shares shot up 30 percent to $13.69 as the company agreed to sell itself to Europe-based JD Sports Fashion in a deal which values the company at $558 million.

Shares of USG Corporation USG got a boost, shooting up 16 percent to $38.89 after the building-materials manufacturer received a takeover offer from Germany's Knauf KG for $42 per share.

Verona Pharma plc VRNA shares were also up, gaining 25 percent to $20.30 after the company disclosed positive top-line data from Phase 2b clinical trial of RPL554 for the maintenance treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Equities Trading DOWN

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. PTGX shares dropped 58 percent to $8.510 as the company disclosed that it has discontinued Phase 2b PROPEL trial of PTG-100 for the treatment of ulcerative colitis following interim analysis.

Shares of Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. BHVN were down 30 percent to $17.43. Biohaven disclosed that it has achieved both co-primary regulatory endpoints in its two pivotal Phase 3 trials of rimegepant for the acute treatment of migraine.

Cesca Therapeutics Inc. KOOL was down, falling around 17 percent to $2.2299 after the company reported a registered direct offering to sell 610,000 shares at $2.27 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.41 percent to $65.61 while gold traded down 0.08 percent to $1,354.60.

Silver traded up 0.32 percent Monday to $16.635, while copper fell 0.67 percent to $2.973.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.28 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.51 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.24 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.36 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.31 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.30 percent.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index increased to 0.88 in February, versus 0.02 in January.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index for March will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

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

New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley is set to speak in Washington at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester will speak in Princeton, NJ at 4:30 p.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 2-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.