Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises 350 Points; Cassava Sciences Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 1.27% to 28,016 while the NASDAQ rose 1.74% to 11042.51. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.41% to 3,387.94.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 6,520,600 cases with around 194,080 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 4,846,420 confirmed cases and 79,720 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,330,450 COVID-19 cases with 131,620 deaths. In total, there were at least 29,019,630 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 924,460 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 2.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Nam Tai Property Inc. NTP, up 18%, and Fathom Holdings Inc. FTHM, up 11%.

In trading on Monday, communication services shares rose by just 0.6%.

Top Headline

NVIDIA Corporation NVDA announced plans to acquire British chipmaker Arm Ltd from SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund, in a deal valued at $40 billion.

Under the deal, the Santa Clara, California-based company will fund the purchase of all of Arm’s shares in $12 billion cash and $21.5 billion in stock. $2 billion in cash would be payable at signing of the agreement, Nvidia said in a statement.

Equities Trading UP

Immunomedics, Inc. IMMU shares shot up 99% to $84.08. Gilead Sciences, Inc. GILD announced plans to acquire Immunomedics in a deal at $21 billion.

Shares of Cassava Sciences, Inc. SAVA got a boost, shooting 108% to $6.90 following the release of a clinical trial readout. Cassava announced final results of a Phase 2b study of its lead drug candidate sumifilam, which showed Alzheimer's patients treated with 50mg or 100mg of sumifilam twice daily for 28 days showed statistically significant improvements in biomarkers of disease pathology, neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation versus a placebo.

Scientific Games Corporation SGMS shares were also up, gaining 40% to $26.50 after the company announced new institutional investors would take a stake in the company at $28 per share. Shares are being purchased from current shareholders.


Equities Trading DOWN

Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc. KALA shares tumbled 9% to $8.01. Jefferies downgraded Kala Pharmaceuticals from Buy to Hold and lowered the price target from $21 to $10.

Shares of ClearOne, Inc. CLRO were down 7% to $2.2625 after the company reported a $5.3 million registered direct offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules.

Mallinckrodt plc MNK was down, falling 5% to $1.1450 after the FDA denied the company's new drug application to treat kidney failure.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $37.20, while gold traded up 0.9% to $1,964.70.

Silver traded up 2.3% Monday to $27.465, while copper rose 0.9% to $3.067.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.15%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.11%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.14%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.07%, French CAC 40 rose 0.35% and London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.1%.

Eurozone reported that its industrial production climbed better-than-expected by 4.1% in July, versus analysts’ estimates of a 4% increase.

Economics

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