Benzinga | Oct 5, 2020 02:39PM EDT

Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges 350 Points; Eidos Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 1.27% to 28,035 while the NASDAQ rose 1.67% to 11,260.24. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.34% to 3,393.20.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 7,418,730 cases with around 209,730 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 6,623,810 confirmed cases and 102,680 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,915,280 COVID-19 cases with 146,350 deaths. In total, there were at least 35,220,160 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,037,600 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped 2.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEIX), up 14%, and TC PipeLines, LP (NYSE:TCP), up 11%.

In trading on Monday, real estate shares fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY) announced plans to acquire MyoKardia for $13.1 billion in cash to expand its heart-drugs offering.



Equities Trading UP

MyoKardia, Inc. (NASDAQ:MYOK) shares shot up 58% to $220.35 after Bristol-Myers Squibb announced a multi-billion dollar deal to buy cardio-focused biopharma Myokardia.

Shares of Eidos Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:EIDX) got a boost, shooting 41% to $73.25 after the company announced it would be acquired by BridgeBio for $73.26 per share.

Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRVS) shares were also up, gaining 20% to $4.90 after the company announced positive early results from a study of its potential COVID-19 treatment.



Equities Trading DOWN

Nam Tai Property Inc. (NYSE:NTP) shares tumbled 26% to $6.97 as the company raised $170 million through private placement transaction.

Shares of Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CNK) were down 16% to $8.46 after a competing movie theater operator, Regal Entertainment, closed all of its US locations due to a lack of big-ticket movies.

DPW Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DPW) was down, falling 12% to $1.9901 after the company disclosed an offering of its common stock for $8.975 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 5.8% to $39.18, while gold traded up 0.6% to $ 1,918.60.

Silver traded up 1.9% Monday to $24.475 while copper fell 0.7% to $2.9580.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today on hopes of stimulus before the US elections and an improvement in President Trump's health. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.81%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.23%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 1.06%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 1.10%, French CAC 40 rose 0.97% and London's FTSE 100 rose 0.69%.

French services PMI tumbled to 47.5 in September versus a reading of 51.5 in the earlier month.



Economics

The IHS Markit services PMI slipped to 54.6 in September versus previous month's reading of 55.0.

The ISM non-manufacturing PMI climbed to 57.8 in September versus a reading of 56.9 in August.