Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Disney, Verizon Reach Broad-Based Distribution Agreement

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 1.01 percent to 23,295.84 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.72 percent to 6,632.05. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.73 percent to 2,503.94.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the health care shares rose by 1.5 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Heron Therapeutics Inc HRTX up 7 percent, and Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals Inc SBPH up 9 percent.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares fell 0.2 percent.

Top Headline

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ and Walt Disney Co DIS over the weekend announced a "broad-based distribution agreement" that puts an end to a programming fee dispute.

Verizon and Disney reached an agreement that puts an end to months of talks to keep Disney's properties and channels on the Fios platform. Verizon told customers in an e-mail prior to Sunday's agreement that Disney is asking for "hundreds of millions of dollars more for its programming" despite many of its channels experiencing "declining viewership," CNN reported. Verizon also said in the e-mail it was "standing up to networks like Disney, refusing to accept these huge increases."

Equities Trading UP

vTv Therapeutics Inc. VTVT shares got a boost, shooting up 29 percent to $2.92 after closing up 120 percent last Friday after the company exercised its right to have MacAndrews & Forbes Group purchase 815k shares at $1.84 per share.

Shares of Safe-T Group Ltd SFET shot up 26 percent to $3.46 after the company received an order from the largest Israeli beverage company for its SDA and SDE solutions.

Heron Therapeutics, Inc. HRTX shares were also up, gaining 7 percent to $25.46 after the company disclosed that the FDA has granted Priority Review designation for its new drug application for HTX-011.

Equities Trading DOWN

American Midstream Partners, LP AMID shares dropped 21 percent to $3.44 after an 8-K showed an amendment to credit deal, where the company will no longer be permitted to declare, pay any cash distribution until its consolidated total leverage ratio is reduced to less than 5:1.

Shares of Pulmatrix, Inc. PULM were down 22 percent to $0.2368 after the company announced a $25 million common unit offering.

Bridgeline Digital, Inc. BLIN was down, falling around 17 percent to $0.2365. Bridgeline Digital reported a Q4 loss of $0.13 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $0.02 per share. Its sales declined to $2.8 million from $4.1 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.4 percent to $46.42 while gold traded up 0.27 percent to $1,286.40.

Silver traded up 0.80 percent Monday to $15.56, while copper fell 0.26 percent to $2.6745.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.46 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.52 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 1.44 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 1.71 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.01 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.09 percent.

Economics

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index for December is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 52-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.