U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 200 points on Monday.

The Dow traded up 0.44% to 52,105.66 while the NASDAQ rose 1.33% to 25,634.54. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.79% to 7,412.29.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 2.4% on Monday.

In trading on Monday, materials stocks fell by 1.4%.

Top Headline

Shares of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) jumped around 10% on Monday after the company announced it will separate into two independent publicly traded companies through a tax-free spin-off of NBCUniversal and Sky.

Equities Trading UP
         

• Universe Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:UPC) shares shot up 423% to $15.49 after the company announced it will acquire Best Praise International for $10.75 million.
• Shares of Decoy Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:DCOY) got a boost, surging 102% to $11.14. The company announced a $21 million private placement financing with a healthcare investor at $5.91 per share.
• TNL Mediagene (NASDAQ:TNMG) shares were also up, gaining 83% to $0.89 after the company announced that “Keychron Orca echo” generated gross merchandise value exceeding ¥300 million within five days of launch.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Farmmi Inc (NASDAQ:FAMI) shares dropped 78% to $0.27 after the company announced the pricing of its $3 million offering of 12 million shares and warrants at $0.25 per unit.
• Shares of Evommune Inc (NYSE:EVMN) were down 34% to $16.50 after the company announced top-line results from its phase 2b trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of EVO756 did not meet the primary endpoint of mean change in a patient’s Urticaria Activity Score over seven days at 12 weeks at any dose.
• Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NASDAQ:AMPH) was down, falling 10% to $19.70. B of A Securities analyst Jason Gerberry downgraded Amphastar Pharma from Neutral to Underperform and lowered the price target from $25 to $20.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.1% to $70.70 while gold traded down 1.2% at $4,048.70.

Silver traded down 1% to $58.625 on Monday, while copper fell 1% to $6.1490.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.2%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.1%. London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.1%, while France’s CAC 40 rose 0.1%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.15%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index surging 1.57%, China’s Shanghai Composite rising 1.16% and India’s BSE Sensex falling 0.48%.

Economics

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index will be released today.

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