Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.1 percent to 25,875.10 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.23 percent to 7,705.94.
The S&P also rose, gaining 0.25 percent to 2,829.48.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Monday afternoon, the energy shares climbed 1.2 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American
Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: AMID) up 28 percent,
and Smart Sand, Inc. (NASDAQ: SND) up 11
percent.
In trading on Monday, communication services shares fell 0.8 percent.
Top Headline
Fidelity National Information Servcs Inc (NYSE: FIS) reached an agreement to buy Worldpay, Inc. (NYSE: WP), an e-commerce and payments company for around $34 billion.
The combination of FIS and Worldpay will create a new entity that will offer a best-in-class enterprise banking, payments,
capital markets and global e-commerce capabilities, the companies said in a press release. The companies combined for $12.3 billion
in pro forma annual revenue in 2018.
Equities Trading UP
Daré Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ: DARE)
shares got a boost, shooting up 150 percent to $2.2531 following positive results for its vaginally administered tamoxifen. Dare
Bioscience said Monday its DARE-VVA1, a proprietary formulation of tamoxifen for vaginal administration being evaluated as a
potential treatment option for vulvar and vaginal atrophy (VVA) in patients with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer, showed
significant improvements in reducing vaginal pH and vaginal dryness without significant systemic absorption of tamoxifen.
Shares of Dermira, Inc. (NASDAQ: DERM)
shot up 76 percent to $12.02 after an announcement from the company regarding a midstage trial involving its investigational
candidate for atopic dermatitis. Dermira reported positive results ahead of the market open Monday from a Phase 2b dose-ranging
study of lebrikizumab that is being evaluated for treating adult patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis.
PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PHAS) shares were also up, gaining 60 percent to $5.96 after the New England
Journal of Medicine published the positive Phase 1 results for the company's PB2452.
Equities Trading DOWN
Aerpio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARPO) shares dropped 71 percent to $1.24 after the company announced that its
Phase 2 TIME-2b study of AKB-9778 did not meet its primary endpoint.
Shares of NII Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: NIHD) were down 27 percent to $2.3350 after the company reported
worse-than-expected Q4 sales results. The company also announced the sale of Nextel Brazil to America Movil.
FutureFuel Corp. (NYSE: FF) was down,
falling around 22 percent to $13.99 after the company reported Q4 EPS of $0.04, down from $0.36 last year and Q4 sales of $65.51
million, down from $75.26 million last year.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.01 percent to $59.11 while gold traded down 0.1 percent to $1,302.50.
Silver traded up 0.1 percent Monday to $15.335, while copper rose 0.2 percent to $2.9105.
Eurozone
European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.27 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.72
percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.90 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.25 percent, and the French CAC 40
gained 0.14 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.98 percent.
Economics
The National Association of Home Builders’ housing market index was unchanged at a reading of 62 for March. However, economists
were expecting a reading of 63.
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