Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up 2.4%; Pulmatrix Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 1.14 percent to 26,223.65 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.19 percent to 7,821.07. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.04 percent to 2,863.93.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday afternoon, the financial shares rose 2.5 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Capstar Financial Holdings, Inc. CSTR 8.66% up 9 percent, and Noah Holdings Limited NOAH 8.13% up 8 percent.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares fell 0.9 percent.

Top Headline

Cal-Maine Foods Inc CALM 3% reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter.

Cal-Maine reported quarterly earnings of $0.82 per share on sales of $383.992 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.43 per share on sales of $370.76 million.

Equities Trading UP

Pulmatrix Inc PULM 84.25% shares got a boost, shooting up 123 percent to $2.8383 after the company reported that it entered into a binding term sheet with Cipla Technologies for development and commercialization of Pulmazole.

Shares of Adient plc ADNT 10.91% shot up 12 percent to $14.49 after the stock was upgraded from Underperform to Neutral by Baird.

Lithium Americas Corp. LAC 10.5% shares were also up, gaining 12 percent to $4.22 after the company reported Q4 earnings and received a $160 million investment for its Argentinian lithium project.

Equities Trading DOWN

comScore, Inc. SCOR 29.68% shares dropped 26 percent to $15.00 after the CEO left the company and the stock was downgraded by Loop Capital and Oppenheimer.

Shares of Qutoutiao Inc. QTT 8.82% were down 9 percent to $10.49 after the company announced an 8.5 million share offering by the company and existing shareholders.

Lyft, Inc. LYFT 11.83% was down, falling around 10 percent to $70.14 after the stock fell more than 10 percent on its first day of trading Friday. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Lyft with a Neutral rating.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.4 percent to $61.57 while gold traded down 0.4 percent to $1,293.40.

Silver traded down 0.2 percent Monday to $15.08, while copper fell 0.3 percent to $2.9265.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 1.21 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.1 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.1 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 1.35 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.03 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.52 percent.

Economics

U.S. retail sales fell 0.2 percent for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent rise.

The manufacturing PMI for March is schedule for release at 9:45 a.m. ET.

U.S. business inventories increased 0.8 percent for January, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.4 percent gain.

The ISM manufacturing composite index rose to 55.30 in March, versus prior reading of 54.20. Economists projected a reading of 54.20.

U.S. construction spending rose 1 percent for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.1 percent increase.