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.