Mid-day market update: Dow rises over 600 points, O2Micro International shares surge

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 600 points on Monday.

The Dow traded up 2.14% to 31,931.82 while the NASDAQ rose 1.57% to 11,529.80. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.90% to 3,975.67.

Leading and lagging sectors

Financials shares rose by 2.8% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Forge Global Holdings, Inc., up 18% and Ocwen Financial Corporation up 9%.

In trading on Monday, consumer discretionary shares fell 0.8%.

Top headline

Broadcom Inc is reportedly in discussions to take over cloud computing company VMWare Inc. The San Jose, California-based semiconductors and infrastructure software solutions company is looking to purchase VMWare, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Equities trading up

TreeHouse Foods, Inc. shares shot up 13% to $41.55. Truist Securities upgraded Treehouse Foods from Hold to Buy and raised the price target from $35 to $50.

Shares of VMware, Inc. got a boost, shooting 19% to $114.17 following several reports Broadcom is in talks to acquire the company.

O2Micro International Limited shares were also up, gaining 18% to $3.46. O2Micro announced the receipt of an updated preliminary non-binding proposal to acquire the company.

Equities trading down

Evoke Pharma, Inc. shares tumbled 17% to $2.54 after effect of 1:12 reverse stock split.

Shares of Inotiv, Inc. were down 13% to $15.92. Inotiv said on May 18, U.S. Department of Justice executed a search and seizure warrant on Cumberland, Virginia facility.

Foghorn Therapeutics Inc. was down, falling 14% to $11.66. Morgan Stanley maintained Foghorn Therapeutics with an Overweight and lowered the price target from $26 to $25.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $109.81, while gold traded up 0.8% to $1,855.90.

Silver traded up 1.1% to $21.905 on Monday while copper rose 1.5% to $4.3390.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.80%, London’s FTSE 100 jumped 1.35% and Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.16%. The German DAX climbed 0.93%, French CAC 40 gained 0.39% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.42%.

The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany increased to a three-month high of 93 in May versus a revised reading of 91.9 in April.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to 0.47 points in April versus a three-month low reading of 0.36 points in the previous month.