Shares of biotech companies fell after U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she would announce a plan to stop “price gouging” for specialty drugs.
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U.S. exchanges were up on Monday in volatile trading on the back of a strong showing by financial shares which had suffered a fall towards the end of last week due to the Federal Reserve’s announcement to keep interest rates unchanged. The Nasdaq biotech index slumped 4.4 percent. Looking ahead to the rest of this week, Wall Street will hear more from Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart – but that’s just the prelude to a Thursday speech from Fed Chair Janet Yellen.
Global stock markets have lately been rocked by news of a slowdown in China’s economy, unsettling investors that have largely shied away from the markets since. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told CNBC on Monday there is a powerful case to be made for a rate hike, which he said could come in October. The S&P financial index was up 1.1 percent.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 12.90 (0.66 percent) at 1,970.93, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 34.57 (0.72 percent) at 4,861.79.
Nine of the 10 major S&P sectors were higher.
Existing-home sales fell in August by 4.8 percent, according to data from the National Association of Realtors, a bigger decline than expected.
Shares of GoPro were down 8.2 percent at $32.27 after Barron’s said the video camera maker’s shares could plunge to $25 as its latest product launch underwhelmed customers amid increasing competition.
Treasury prices retreated throughout the day even when stocks dropped off their highs; as a result, the 10-year note settled on its low with the yield rising 6 bps to 2.21%.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,827 to 1,216, for a 1.50-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,492 issues fell and 1,308 advanced for a 1.14-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.
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Crude oil is rallying, and West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures in New York rose 2% to as high as $46.39.
