The major averages have regained their upward momentum following a collapse seen in the final hour of regular trading on Tuesday that came after Senate Leader McConnell said stimulus talks were again at a stalemate. While little has seemed to have changed on the political front, aside from Presidential candidate Joe Biden having announced last night that he has selected Kamala Harris as his running mate, the market has had a decidedly more positive tone in the early going of today's session.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the Consumer Price Index rose 0.6% in July on both the headline and core, beating expectations a day after the PPI also pointed to hotter than expected inflation.
TOP NEWS: Moderna (MRNA) shares were fractionally lower near noon after the company announced last night that the U.S. government secured 100M doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate mRNA-1273 as part of the U.S. government's goal of securing early access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for the American people. The award of up to $1.525B is for the manufacturing and delivery of 100M doses of mRNA-1273 including incentive payments for timely delivery of the product. With the previous award of up to $955M from BARDA for the development of mRNA-1273 to licensure, the announcement brings the U.S. government commitments for early access to mRNA-1273 to up to $2.48B, the company noted.
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) jumped 9% after the electric car maker announced a 5-for-1 stock split in the form of a stock dividend "to make stock ownership more accessible to employees and investors." Following the news, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said that the stock split is a "smart strategic move" for the board to make, given Tesla's strong retail base and growing appetite among investors around the story. In addition, Baird analyst Ben Kallo said that the stock split puts individual investors in the driver's seat.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Goldman Sachs (GS) is among "a small number of bidders" for General Motors' (GM) credit card business, which has roughly $3B in outstanding balances. Barclays (BCS) is also in the running, though there is no guarantee that GM will choose to replace its current card issuer, Capital One Financial (COF), according to the Journal.
Meanwhile, Uber (UBER) CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told MSNBC that the company would likely shut down temporarily in California if a court does not overturn a recent ruling requiring it to classify its drivers as full-time employees.
Additionally, National Amusements, the parent company of ViacomCBS (VIAC), announced the passing of chairman Sumner Redstone.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Pacific Biosciences (PACB), which rose 27% after its 19.43M share spot secondary offering priced at $4.47 per share. Also higher were Cornerstone Building Brands (CNR) and Brinker (EAT), which each gained about 9% apiece after reporting quarterly results.
Among the notable losers was Super Micro Computer (SMCI), which slid 13% after it reported quarterly results, provided guidance for the next quarter, and authorized a $30M stock buyback. Also lower after reporting quarterly results were OneSpan (OSPN) and K12 (LRN), which fell 39% and 6%, respectively.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 246.73, or 0.89%, to 27,933.64 , the Nasdaq was up 230.61, or 2.14%, to 11,013.43 , and the S&P 500 was up 47.27, or 1.42%, to 3,380.96 .
Tesla
+129.04 (+9.39%)
Moderna
+0.46 (+0.67%)
Goldman Sachs
+0.5 (+0.24%)
General Motors
-0.47 (-1.65%)
Barclays
+ (+0.00%)
Capital One
-1.17 (-1.68%)
Uber
-0.07 (-0.22%)
Use PARA
-0.58 (-2.19%)
PacBio
+1.245 (+27.82%)
Cornerstone Building Brands
+1.38 (+18.78%)
Brinker
+2.575 (+8.54%)
Supermicro
-4.02 (-13.20%)
OneSpan
-11.87 (-38.06%)
Stride
-2.93 (-6.19%)