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. (NASDAQ: AFIN) up 5 percent, and
Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. (NYSE: IIPR) up 4 percent.
In trading on Monday, information technology shares fell 0.48 percent.
Top Headline
ENSCO PLC (NYSE: ESV) announced plans to
buy Rowan Companies PLC (NYSE: 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. (NYSE: IGC) shares shot up 35 percent to $5.47.
Shares of Rowan Companies plc (NYSE: 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 (NYSE: EBR) shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $5.50.
Equities Trading DOWN
Menlo Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: 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. (NASDAQ: 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 (NYSE: 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.
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