Wall Street opened higher and the major averages held their gains through the session with reopening stocks leading gains as COVID-19 case counts build more slowly in the U.S. The growth in new coronavirus infections slowed to its lowest pace of the pandemic in the past week, which is an encouraging sign about the effectiveness of the nation's vaccination efforts. Inflation concerns also appear to be easing. While it may be early to pull down the inflation red flags, the 10-year breakeven fell the most last week since September, indicating less concern over prices.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the Chicago Fed national activity index dropped 1.47 points to 0.24 in April.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department has issued a travel advisory that lists Japan as "Level 4: Do Not Travel" due to COVID-19 risks.
TOP NEWS: Shares of Cabot Oil & Gas (COG) fell 6.7% after the company announced an agreement to combine with Cimarex Energy (XEC) in an all-stock merger of equals. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, Cimarex shareholders will receive 4.0146 shares of Cabot common stock for each share of Cimarex common stock owned. The exchange ratio, together with closing prices for Cabot and Cimarex on May 21, reflects an enterprise value for the combined companies of approximately $17B. Cimarex shares were 7.1% lower following the deal news.
In other M&A news, Xeris Pharmaceutics (XERS) and Strongbridge Pharma (SBBP) said they reached an agreement under which Xeris will acquire Strongbridge for stock and contingent value rights, or CVRs. The agreement, including the maximum aggregate amount payable under the CVRs, values Strongbridge at approximately $267M based on the closing price of Xeris common stock of $3.47 on May 21, and Strongbridge's fully diluted share capital. Shares of Strongbridge jumped 12% after the news, while Xeris shares declined 5.8%.
Shares of Virgin Galactic (SPCE) rose almost 28% after the company successfully conducted its third spaceflight and the first ever spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico over the weekend. The company said that VSS Unity and its two pilots are now in space. Following the news, Alembic Global analyst Peter Skibitski upgraded Virgin Galactic to Overweight from Neutral, saying he believes the successful spaceflight could drive new share momentum.
Meanwhile, Amazon (AMZN) shares closed 1.3% higher after The Wall Street Journal reported the company is nearing a deal to buy film studio MGM Holdings for almost $9B and an agreement could be announced as early as this week. Such a deal would be the e-commerce giant's second-largest acquisition ever, behind only its $13.7B deal in 2017 to buy natural grocery chain Whole Foods, the Journal noted.
Additionally, cruise liner stocks traded higher after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that President Joe Biden intends to sign the Alaska tourism bill Monday, which would let cruise ships return to Alaska this year. Publicly traded companies in the cruise travel space include Carnival Corporation (CCL), Royal Caribbean (RCL), Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCLH), Lindblad Expeditions (LIND) and OneSpaWorld (OSW).
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Verastem (VSTM), which rose 24.8% after the FDA granted the company Breakthrough Therapy designation for the combination of its investigational drug RAF/MEK inhibitor VS-6766, with defactinib, for treating patients with low-grade serous ovarian cancer. Also higher was Beyond Meat (BYND), which gained 10% after Bernstein analyst Alexia Howard double upgraded the stock to Outperform from Underperform and after the alternative meat company and Tesco (TSCDY) announced a partnership.
Among the notable losers was NGM Biopharmaceuticals (NGM) which dropped almost 41% after its Phase 2b ALPINE 2/3 study did not meet its primary endpoint and the company said it has decided to not pursue associated Phase 3 development of aldafermin. Also lower was Shift (SFT), which fell 11.5% after announcing its intention to offer $75M aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2026.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 186.14, or 0.54%, to 34,393.98, the Nasdaq gained 190.18, or 1.41%, to 13,661.17, and the S&P 500 advanced 41.19, or 0.99%, to 4,197.05.
Cabot Oil & Gas
-1.21 (-6.79%)
Cimarex Energy
-5.06 (-7.11%)
Xeris Biopharma
-0.205 (-5.89%)
Strongbridge Biopharma
+0.29 (+12.08%)
Virgin Galactic
+5.86 (+27.84%)
Amazon.com
+42.69 (+1.33%)
Carnival
+0.74 (+2.72%)
Royal Caribbean
+3.07 (+3.71%)
Norwegian Cruise Line
+1.35 (+4.70%)
Lindblad Expeditions
+0.36 (+2.23%)
OneSpaWorld
-0.08 (-0.73%)
Verastem
+0.8 (+25.08%)
Beyond Meat
+10.71 (+10.05%)
Tesco
+0.04 (+0.42%)
NGM Biopharmaceuticals
-11.63 (-40.94%)
Shift Technologies
-0.845 (-11.33%)