Stock futures were higher once again, pointing to a positive open on Wall Street that propeled the indexes further into record high territory. The passage of the U.S. stimulus deal, the Christmas Eve Brexit compromise and the continued roll-out of vaccines continues to underpin risk-on sentiment, though the major averages have come off their early levels and are lower at midday as lawmakers continue to debate the amount of aid the government will be sending to Americans.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the S&P Case Shiller 20-City home price index rose 1.3% to 235.8 in October, which was another record peak and better than expected.
In Capitol Hill news, Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, blocked an attempt by Democrats to increase stimulus payments in the COVID-19 relief bill from $600 to $2,000 per qualifying adult.
TOP NEWS: Shares of Intel are up about 6% to $49.73 in midday trading after both Reuters and CNBC reported that activist hedge fund Third Point is pushing the chipmaker to explore strategic alternatives.
Shares of Arcturus Therapeutics (ARCT) plunged 55% near noon as the market has expressed significant disappointment with a Phase 1/2 data update for its COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidate ARCT-021.
Boeing (BA) shares were 1% higher at midday after American Airlines (AAL) restarted its 737 MAX commercial flights today following the FAA lifting restrictions on the long-grounded aircraft last month.
Lingling Wei of The Wall Street Journal reports, citing Chinese officials and government advisers familiar with the matter, that China's government is seeking to shrink Jack Ma's technology and financial empire and potentially take a larger stake in his businesses. Under a restructuring laid out this week by China's financial regulators, Ant Group would return to its roots as an online-payment provider akin to PayPal Holdings (PYPL) while its more profitable investment and loan businesses would be curtailed, according to Wei's report. Ma founded both Ant and its e-commerce affiliate Alibaba Group (BABA).
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Immersion (IMMR), which rose 30% after Colliers analyst Charles Anderson raised the firm's price target on Immersion to $15 and reiterated a Buy rating on the shares, citing the view that Sony's (SNE) PlayStation 5 is a "breakthrough" for Immersion' haptics technology. Also higher was Caesarstone (CSTE), which gained 19% after Benchmark analyst Reuben Garner initiated coverage with a Buy rating and $16 price target, calling the stock a "rare housing vaccine play."
Among the notable losers was Actinium Pharmaceuticals (ATNM), which dropped 25% after announcing that the independent Data Monitoring Committee has completed the single ad hoc interim analysis of the pivotal Phase 3 SIERRA study of Iomab-B for bone marrow transplant conditioning in patients over the age of 55 with active relapsed or refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia and recommended that the study continue as planned to full enrollment of 150 patients. Also lower was Seer (SEER), which fell 15% after analysts began to roll out coverage of the stock following the company's IPO. Among them, BofA analyst Derik de Bruin initiated coverage of Seer with a Neutral rating and $69 price target while Morgan Stanley analyst Tejas Savant initiated coverage of Seer with an Equal Weight rating and $65 target.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was down 109.96, or 0.36%, to 30,294.01, the Nasdaq was down 75.07, or 0.58%, to 12,824.35, and the S&P 500 was down 9.12, or 0.24%, to 3,726.24.
Intel
+2.6 (+5.52%)
Arcturus Therapeutics
-50.24 (-54.40%)
Boeing
+1 (+0.46%)
American Airlines
-0.1 (-0.62%)
Immersion
+3.11 (+33.01%)
Symbol now SONY
+2.165 (+2.21%)
Caesarstone
+2.01 (+18.66%)
Seer
-9.75 (-15.12%)
Actinium Pharmaceuticals
-2.57 (-24.09%)