Mid-afternoon market update: Dow jumps 700 points, Del Taco Restaurants shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 2.11% to 35,308.84 while the NASDAQ rose 1.24% to 15,272.25. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.51% to 4,607.08.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 49,969,850 cases with around 808,760 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,641,560 cases and 473,530 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,143,090 COVID-19 cases with 615,670 deaths. In total, there were at least 266,264,960 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,273,750 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 2.3% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ranger Oil Corporation ROCC +12.26% (Get Free Alerts for ROCC), up 13% and Civitas Resources, Inc CIVI +12.44% (Get Free Alerts for CIVI) up 12%.

In trading on Monday, health care shares rose by just 0.6%.

Top Headline

Science Applications International Corporation SAIC +0.25% reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter and raised its FY22 forecast.

Science Applications reported a quarterly profit of $1.85 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.50 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.90 billion, versus expectations of $1.88 billion.

Science Applications raised its FY22 EPS guidance from $6.50-$6.70 to $6.75-$6.95. The company also boosted sales guidance from $7.3 billion-$7.4 billion to $7.35 billion -$7.40 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Del Taco Restaurants, Inc. TACO +66.14% shares shot up 66% to $12.50. Jack In The Box Inc JACK -4.11% agreed to acquire Del Taco Restaurants for $12.51 per share in cash in a deal valued at about $575 million.

Shares of Insignia Systems, Inc. ISIG +204.66% got a boost, shooting 153% to $12.67 after the company reported review of strategic alternatives.

Adicet Bio, Inc. ACET +38.47% shares were also up, gaining 36% to $13.35 after the company announced interim data from its dose escalation Phase 1 study evaluating the safety and tolerability of ADI-001.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bolt Biotherapeutics, Inc. BOLT -55.81% shares tumbled 52% to $5.08. Bolt Biotherapeutics announced the presentation of interim clinical data from its Phase 1/2 study of BDC-1001.

Shares of Aeglea BioTherapeutics, Inc. AGLE -36.5% were down 35% to $3.93 after the company announced data from the Phase 3 study of pegzilarginase in Arginase 1 Deficiency (ARG1-D) patients aged two years and older. ARG1-D is a rare disease characterized by high levels of the amino acid arginine. The disease manifestations include spasticity, developmental delay, intellectual disability, and seizures.

Alset EHome International Inc. AEI -41.65% was down, falling 40% to $0.6493 after the company announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering totaling $30 million in gross proceeds.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 4.1% to $68.96, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,781.10.

Silver traded down 0.7% Monday to $22.32 while copper rose 1.8% to $4.3430.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.28%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.4% and the German DAX 30 gained 1.39%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 climbed 1.54%, French CAC 40 jumped 1.48% and Italy’s FTSE MIB surged 2.16%.

The IHS Markit Eurozone construction PMI climbed to 53.3 in November from 51.2 in October, while German construction PMI rose to 47.9 in November from 47.7 a month ago. New orders for German manufactured goods dropped 6.9% in October. The IHS Markit Italy construction PMI surged to 65.5 in November from 58.6 in the previous month, while French construction PMI rose to 51.6 in November from 50.3.

Economics

There were no major US economic releases Monday.