Benzinga | Sep 14, 2020 10:27AM EDT

Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Nvidia Reports $40B Deal To Buy SoftBank's Arm Holdings

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 1.40% to 28052.12 while the NASDAQ rose 2.31% to 11104.34. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.77% to 3,400.27.

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

Information technology shares climbed 2.4% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Priority Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRTH), up 24%, and Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Limited (NASDAQ:KC), up 14%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: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. (NASDAQ:IMMU) shares shot up 101% to $85.00. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) announced plans to acquire Immunomedics in a deal at $21 billion.

Shares of Cassava Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAVA) got a boost, shooting 86% to $6.18 after the company announced results for a Phase 2b clinical study of Sumifilam in patients with Alzheimer's disease showed statistically significant improvements in biomarkers compared to placebo.

Scientific Games Corporation (NASDAQ:SGMS) shares were also up, gaining 41% to $26.76 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. (NASDAQ:KALA) shares tumbled 11% to $7.83. Jefferies downgrades Kala Pharmaceuticals from Buy to Hold and lowered the price target from $21 to $10.

Shares of Nano-X Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ:NNOX) were down 10% to $57.72 after climbing 33% on Friday. Nano X Imaging recently announced it has signed an agreement with SPI Medical for the deployment of 630 Nanox.ARC units in Mexico.

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN) was down, falling 10% to $29.25 as a potential sell-off following the stock increasing roughly 45% in the last month.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.8% to $37.05, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,950.80.

Silver traded up 0.6% Monday to $27.02, while copper rose 0.1% to $3.0395.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index fell 0.4%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.1%, French CAC 40 rose 0.1% and London's FTSE 100 fell 0.3%.

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

Economics

U.S. consumer inflation expectations report for August will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.