The major averages are rallying on vaccine and stimulus hopes as well as firm economic data, having overcome early pessimism that was driven by the presidential debate last evening. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said during an interview on CNBC that he is "hopeful" an overall deal on more stimulus can be reached, adding that he hopes to make what he believes will be a "reasonable response" to Democrat's stimulus proposal later today. Subsequent to the airing of that interview, reports have indicated that Mnuchin and House Leader Nancy Pelosi will be having a face-to-face meeting this afternoon.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., ADP reported a 749,000 rise in private payroll employment in September, which was stronger than expected. An index of pending home sales climbed 8.8% to 132.8 in August to hit another record high. The Chicago PMI surged 11.2 points to 62.4 in September. Second quarter GDP contracted at a 31.4% rate, continuing to improve marginally versus the 31.7% rate reported in the second look reading. WTI crude was largely unchanged near $39.40 immediately following the EIA inventory data that showed a roughly 2M barrel weekly decline in crude oil inventories.
TOP NEWS: Shares of Regeneron (REGN) are 1.5% lower near noon after the company provided its initial data on its COVID-19 therapeutic antibody cocktail last night. Jefferies analyst Michael Yee has said Regeneron's antibody cocktail study results "looks great for a particular subset of patients," namely those who are infected but not hospitalized, which differs from Gilead's (GILD) studies with Remdesivir, which were done on much sicker, hospitalized patients. The data from Regeneron are an "incremental positive" for vaccines as they suggest that having existing antibodies, or giving antibodies as a drug, "shifts" the curve and helps people resolve faster, according to Yee.
Shares of Micron Technology (MU) are 5% lower at midday following last night's results from the memory chip maker. Micron's November quarter guidance came in below consensus, although this was consistent with how the company signaled mid-quarter and actually better than feared given the Huawei restriction, according to Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis.
Disney (DIS) told employees in a letter that due to prolonged closures of its California theme parks and limited attendance at its open parks, it will lay off 28,000 workers across its parks, experiences and consumer products segment, CNBC and other media outlets have reported.
In M&A news, The Wall Street Journal reported that NextEra Energy (NEE) recently made a takeover approach to Duke Energy (DUK) for what would be a $60B+ combination. According to some of the people that the report sources, Duke rebuffed the approach, but NextEra is still interested in pursuing a deal.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Genetron (GTH), which rose 24% after it received Breakthrough Device designation from the FDA for its NGS test HCCscreen. Also higher was Nikola (NKLA), which gained 12% after CNBC's Phil LeBeau said he "would not be surprised" if ongoing talks with Nikola (NKLA) result in GM (GM) taking a greater than 11% stake in the electric truck making hopeful.
Among the notable losers was FuelCell (FCEL), which slid 16% after it announced an offering of 31M shares of common stock. Also lower was BioCryst (BCRX), which fell 9% after it announced new data from a study of treatment-naive PNH patients receiving BCX9930.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 503.68, or 1.83%, to 27,956.34, the Nasdaq was up 176.88, or 1.6%, to 11,262.13, and the S&P 500 was up 50.40, or 1.51%, to 3,385.87.
Regeneron
-9.48 (-1.65%)
Micron
-2.69 (-5.30%)
Disney
-0.51 (-0.41%)
Duke Energy
+4.75 (+5.76%)
NextEra Energy
-6.02 (-2.13%)
Genetron
+2.37 (+24.61%)
Nikola
+2.13 (+11.91%)
General Motors
+0.68 (+2.36%)
FuelCell
-0.39 (-15.26%)
BioCryst
-0.325 (-8.46%)
Gilead
+0.86 (+1.39%)