Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Higher; ENSCO And Rowan Agree To Merge

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.03 percent to 26,454.65 while the NASDAQ gained 0.03 percent to 7,790.78. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.11 percent to 2,888.65.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the real estate shares rose 1.19 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American Finance Trust, Inc. AFIN up 5 percent, and Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. IIPR up 4 percent.

In trading on Monday, information technology shares fell 0.48 percent.

Top Headline

ENSCO PLC ESV announced plans to buy Rowan Companies PLC RDC in an all-stock deal valued at $2.38 billion.
Rowan shareholders will receive 2.215 Ensco shares for each Rowan share owned. The combined company will have an enterprise value of around $12 billion.

Equities Trading UP

India Globalization Capital, Inc. IGC shares shot up 35 percent to $5.47.

Shares of Rowan Companies plc RDC got a boost, shooting up 4 percent to $19.42. Ensco and Rowan agreed to merge in an all-stock deal.

Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras S.A. - Eletrobras EBR shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $5.50.

Equities Trading DOWN

Menlo Therapeutics Inc. MNLO shares dropped 38 percent to $6.35 after the company disclosed that its Phase 2 study of MTI-110 missed primary and secondary endpoints.

Shares of Altimmune, Inc. ALT were down 32 percent to $4.95 after gaining 54.04 percent on Friday. Altimmune presented an oral abstract on its intranasal influenza vaccine NasoVax at the IDWeek conference held in San Francisco over the weekend. The presentation made Oct. 6 showed that NasoVAX was well-tolerated and elicited comparable antibody responses and nearly sixfold higher cellular immune response than Sanofi's Fluzone injectable influenza vaccine. Altimmune reported a $25 million registered direct offering.

Aluminum Corporation of China Limited ACH was down, falling around 13 percent to $10.52.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.33 percent to $73.35 while gold traded down 0.75 percent to $1,196.30.

Silver traded down 1.12 percent Monday to $14.485, while copper fell 0.05 to $2.7615.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.82 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.45 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 2.27 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.78 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.85 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.54 percent.

Economics

On the economics calendar Monday, there is no important data due out.