The major averages rallied amid 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 in the afternoon, stocks came off their best levels following reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Mnuchin failed to strike a coronavirus stimulus deal during a more than 90-minute meeting. However, the pair will continue discussions as they try to craft an elusive fifth relief package that could pass both chambers of Congress. Meanwhile, Fox Business reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that Republicans and Democrats are "far apart" on agreeing to a COVID-19 relief package, adding that the GOP "would not come up to $2.2T."
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) finished the day 2.4% lower after the company provided its initial data on its COVID-19 therapeutic antibody cocktail last night.
In other COVID-19 news, the Financial Times reported that Moderna (MRNA) CEO Stephane Bancel said that the company would not be able to apply for authorization for its vaccine candidate until at least late November.
Palantir (PLTR) opened at $10 per share in its direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange, above its $7.25 reference price, while Asana (ASAN) opened at $27 a share, above its own $21 reference price.
Shares of Micron Technology (MU) fell 7.4% 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. Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) announced that it plans to cut up to 9,000 jobs in an effort to cut annual costs by up to $2.5B by 2022. In addition, Bayer (BAYRY) confirmed its adjusted outlook for 2020, saying it plans to cut EUR.15B in annual costs and may eliminate jobs and sell assets as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
Alphabet's (GOOG) Google was in focus after it announced a number of new products. Those included a Nest Audio smart speaker, new Pixel phones, and a new Chromecast device with Google TV, which instead of being just a streaming endpoint one controls with a phone, also runs Android and comes with a remote.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Genetron (GTH), which rose 23.1% after it received Breakthrough Device designation from the FDA for its NGS test HCCscreen. Also higher was Nikola (NKLA), which gained 14.5% after CNBC's Phil LeBeau said he "would not be surprised" if ongoing talks with Nikola 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 16.4% after it announced an offering of 31M shares of common stock. Also lower was BioCryst (BCRX), which fell 10.4% after it announced new data from a study of treatment-naive PNH patients receiving BCX9930.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 329.04, or 1.2%, to 27,781.70, the Nasdaq gained 82.26, or 0.74%, to 11,167.51, and the S&P 500 advanced 27.53, or 0.83%, to 3,363.00.
Regeneron
-14.53 (-2.53%)
Moderna
+0.16 (+0.23%)
Micron
-3.75 (-7.39%)
Disney
-1.15 (-0.92%)
Symbol changed to SHEL
-0.485 (-1.89%)
Symbol changed to SHEL
-0.42 (-1.70%)
Bayer
+ (+0.00%)
NextEra Energy
-5.61 (-1.98%)
Duke Energy
+6.1 (+7.40%)
Alphabet
-3.56 (-0.24%)
Alphabet
-2.78 (-0.19%)
Palantir
+ (+0.00%)
Asana
+ (+0.00%)
Genetron
+2.36 (+24.51%)
Nikola
+2.56 (+14.32%)
General Motors
+0.83 (+2.89%)
FuelCell
-0.41 (-16.05%)
BioCryst
-0.405 (-10.55%)