Biopharmaceutical company Dyax surged 28.4 percent on news it will be acquired by Dublin-based Shire for $5.9 billion.
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About 45 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 17,733.42, up 69.88 points (0.40 percent).
Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 3.5 points, or 0.08 percent, on volume of 23,075 contracts. However, average volume on the sell side and Monday’s paltry buying could indicate traders see the significance of the massive resistance at the 200-day moving averages.
US government economic data released Friday and earlier this week suggests the economy is still sluggish, stuck in a pattern of gradual but uneven growth it has followed since the Great Recession. The Caixin index rose to 48.3 from 47.2 in September.
The ISM manufacturing index slipped to 50.10 in October, versus a previous reading of 50.20.
China’s official factory data on Sunday showed activity unexpectedly shrank for a third straight month in October, though the contraction was modest.
James Athey, investment manager at Aberdeen Asset Management in London, said easy central-bank policy boosted stocks in the last month, and what happens next very much depends on upcoming economic data and how it affects the Federal Reserve’s thinking on monetary policy. Energy stocks rose even more, 2.4 per cent. Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Chesapeake Energy and others rose 3 per cent or more.
The S&P 500 is now sitting on the trend line.
The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending inched up just 0.1 percent in September, partly because consumers were spending less on gasoline as energy prices fell.
The busiest week of third-quarter earnings wrapped up Friday with big moves for a slew of companies.
By far the biggest victor in the currency market was the Turkish lira, which soared 5.6 percent to 3-month high of 2.758 lira per dollar after the ruling AK Party swept to an unexpected election victory on Sunday. TreeHouse fell 5.6 percent. The measure of market turbulence know as the VIX saw its steepest monthly retreat ever in October, down 39 per cent, amid the rally in equities.
Eight of the 10 major S&P sectors were higher, with the health care sector’s 0.67 percent rise leading the advancers. Health care stocks were among the early winners. Phone and utilities companies led decliners in the benchmark gauge.
Continuing this year’s big merger news, payments processing giant Visa said it will buy its sister company Visa Europe in a deal that could be worth more than $23 billion.
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The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index climbed 3 percent as Shire, the drugmaker that’s made a $30 billion unsolicited offer to buy Baxalta Inc., agreed to buy Dyax to gain a promising treatment for a rare genetic disorder.
