Stocks were supported by a number of developments, including indications that President Donald Trump was doing better and could be discharged from Walter Reed hospital as soon as today. President Trump announced his plans to leave the hospital in a tweet late in the trading day, after which his physicians confirmed that his clinical status supports a discharge from Walter Reed and return to the White House, where he will continue to receive care for his COVID-19 diagnosis. Stocks were also helped by fresh hopes for a stimulus deal in Washington and optimism for a Brexit solution after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to extend talks ahead of an October 15 EU summit.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., Markit's services PMI held at 54.6 in the final September reading, unrevised from the flash figure. The ISM services index rose 0.9 points to 57.8 in September, which was better than expected.
Data from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering shows there are now 35.25M confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, including 7.4M in the U.S., and 1.04M deaths due to the disease, including roughly 210,000 in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Drew Hammill, deputy chief of staff for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said that Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke by phone earlier Monday and "discussed the justifications for various numbers and plan to exchange paper today in preparation for another phone call tomorrow."
President Trump tweeted that he will be leaving Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 pm ET, saying he is "feeling really good." The president had been admitted to the hospital on Friday after being diagnosed with COVID-19. In the same tweet, the President stated: "Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge."
TOP NEWS: In M&A news, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) announced an agreement to acquire MyoKardia (MYOK) for $13.1B, or $225.00 per share in cash. The transaction, which is anticipated to close during the fourth quarter, is expected to be minimally dilutive to Bristol Myers Squibb's non-GAAP EPS in 2021 and 2022 and accretive beginning in 2023, the company said. The acquisition of MyoKardia should "provide a significant boost to speculation" as to whether Cytokinetics (CYTK) is taken out by global partner Amgen (AMGN), or even someone else, H.C. Wainwright analyst Joseph Pantginis told investors following the deal announcement. Meanwhile, Citi analyst Mohit Bansal highlighted Epizyme (EPZM) and Karuna Therapeutics (KRTX) as potential targets following MyoKardia's pact to be acquired.
Shares of Regeneron (REGN) rose 7.1% after the company confirmed after the close on Friday that it provided a single 8 gram dose of REGNCOV2, a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies, for use by President Trump after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
Movie theatre operators AMC Entertainment (AMC) and Cinemark (CNK) fell 11.2% and 17.4%, respectively, following the announcement from Cineworld (CNNWF), parent company of Regal, that it will be temporarily suspending operations at all of its 536 Regal theatres in the U.S., as of October 8.
Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil (XOM) shares were 2.3% higher after the company said it intends to cut up to 1,600 jobs in Europe by the end of 2021 in an effort to "improve efficiency and reduce costs."
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Eidos Therapeutics (EIDX), which surged 41.6% after BridgeBio (BBIO) agreed to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Eidos it does not already own. Also higher was ImmunoGen (IMGN), which gained 14.2% after announcing that the FDA has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for IMGN632 for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm.
Among the notable losers was Amag Pharmaceuticals (AMAG), which slid 4.8% after the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research proposed that Makena be withdrawn from the market "because the required postmarket study failed to verify clinical benefit and we have concluded that the available evidence does not show Makena is effective for its approved use." Also lower was DraftKings (DKNG), which fell 5.1% after it announced that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of 32M shares of its Class A common stock, consisting of 16M shares being offered by DraftKings and 16M shares being offered by certain selling stockholders of DraftKings.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 465.8, or 1.68%, to 28,148.64, the Nasdaq gained 257.47, or 2.32%, to 11,332.48, and the S&P 500 advanced 60.16, or 1.80%, to 3,408.60.
Bristol Myers
+0.49 (+0.83%)
MyoKardia
+80.63 (+57.69%)
Cytokinetics
+4.52 (+18.79%)
Amgen
+10.63 (+4.33%)
Epizyme
+1.14 (+10.33%)
Karuna Therapeutics
+5.3 (+6.99%)
Regeneron
+38.47 (+6.80%)
AMC Entertainment
-0.525 (-11.29%)
Cinemark
-1.76 (-17.43%)
CNNWF
+
Exxon Mobil
+0.77 (+2.33%)
acquired by BBIO
+21.11 (+40.32%)
BridgeBio
+0.0198 (+0.05%)
ImmunoGen
+0.54 (+13.92%)
DraftKings
-3.28 (-5.14%)
Amag Pharmaceuticals
-0.69 (-5.02%)