Stocks opened in positive territory and have moved in a very narrow range all morning. The early strength came on the heels of President Trump announcing due to the significant progress made in the trade talks with China, he would not institute the tariffs that were due to be imposed on March 1. The announcement caused the Chinese market to rally more than 5.6% overnight and the European and U.S. markets followed their lead.
ECONOMIC NEWS: In the U.S., wholesale inventories surged 1.1% in December, with sales falling 1.0%. The U.S. Dallas Fed manufacturing index climbed another 12.1 points in February after bouncing 6.1 ticks to 1.0 in January. Those follow a 22.7 point dive to -5.1 in December.
TOP NEWS: Shares of General Electric (GE) jumped almost 9% after the conglomerate entered into an agreement to sell the biopharma business of GE Life Sciences to Danaher (DHR) for roughly $21.4B. In its announcement of the deal, Danaher said that the business will be established as a stand-alone operating company within Danaher's $6.5B Life Sciences segment, joining the Company's Pall, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, SCIEX, Leica Microsystems, Molecular Devices, Phenomenex and IDT businesses. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019. Danaher shares surged 7.9% after the news.
In other M&A news, Spark Therapeutics (ONCE) shares skyrocketed 120% after it said it reached an agreement to be fully acquired by Roche (RHHBY) at a price of $114.50 per share in an all-cash transaction, or a total equity value of $4.8B. Spark said it will continue its operations in Philadelphia as an independent company within the Roche Group. In addition, Ipsen (IPSEY) announced that it has agreed to acquire Clementia Pharmaceuticals (CMTA) for $25 per share in cash upfront. Shares of Clementia surged 74% after the news.
Meanwhile, Tesla (TSLA) was in focus after the Orlando Sentinel reported that a 2016 Tesla Model S crashed and burst into flames on Sunday evening in Davie, Florida, burning its driver "beyond recognition."
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was UniQure (QURE), which rose 30.7% after Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Elemer Piros said he sees UniQure as the next gene therapy buyout following the Spark Therapeutics announvement. Also higher was Wayfair (W), which gained 6.6% after multiple analysts raised their price targets on the stock following its Q4 results.
Among the notable losers was Uniti (UNIT), which slid 5.6% after Bloomberg reported that Windstream (WIN) is filing for bankruptcy. Windstream shares were 24.3% lower after the news. Also lower was McDermott (MDR), which fell 4.4% after reporting quarterly results.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 178.59, or 0.69%, to 26,210.40, the Nasdaq was up 60.77, or 0.81%, to 7,588.20, and the S&P 500 was up 18.14, or 0.65%, to 2,810.81.
GE Aerospace
+0.915 (+8.99%)
Danaher
+9.16 (+8.07%)
Spark Therapeutics
+61.94 (+120.20%)
Roche
+ (+0.00%)
Ipsen
+ (+0.00%)
Clementia Pharmaceuticals
+10.88 (+72.20%)
Tesla
+4.97 (+1.69%)
uniQure
+12.76 (+30.71%)
Wayfair
+9.07 (+6.03%)
Uniti Group
-0.95 (-10.11%)
Windstream
-0.1899 (-22.61%)
McDermott
-0.56 (-7.24%)