From Briefing.com: 4:15 pm : The major averages began the week on a higher note, aided by a rebound in European markets, a rally in crude oil futures, and the outperformance of market heavyweight Apple (AAPL 116.06, +2.00). The Nasdaq Composite (+0.7%) settled ahead of both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.5%) and the S&P 500 (+0.5%).
Long-term interest rate concerns shifted out of focus slightly as thin trading conditions and a holiday closure for the U.S. bond market kept a lid on recent rate angst. Today's action was largely headline driven as positive commentary from oil figures and specific company catalysts led to a higher start to the week. Investors also looked ahead to the start of the third quarter earnings reporting season. Alcoa (AA 31.51, +0.14) will kick things off when the company reports quarterly results ahead of Tuesday's open.
Crude oil extended its recent winning streak after Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled that he supports freezing or even cutting Russian oil production. The commentary comes on the heels of OPEC's recently-proposed output cap. Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia's oil minister also contributed to the positive bias when he suggested that oil prices could reach $60.00/bbl before the end of the year. WTI crude finished the day higher by 3.1% ($51.32/bbl, +$1.56).
The major averages carved out session highs in the first hour of trade, yet buying interest tapered off in a slow, steady fashion during the remainder of the session.
All 11 sectors finished with a gain. The energy (+1.5%), utilities (+0.8%), and technology (+0.7%) sectors led the advance. The industrials sector (+0.02%) brought up the rear, held back by an earnings warning from Dover (DOV 66.69, -5.55), which followed on the heels of Honeywell's (HON 106.80, -0.14) profit warning on Friday.
In the technology space (+0.8%), Apple (AAPL 116.06, +2.00) outperformed after Samsung opted to provisionally adjust its Galaxy 7 smartphone production schedule. The company is seeking to better control quality and safety standards. Meanwhile, Twitter (TWTR 17.56, -2.29) was a story stock throughout the day as various reports highlighted waning takeover interest in the company. The social media name tumbled 11.5% on the news, but finished off its session low. Late headlines indicated Twitter could still be acquired, but most likely only at a lower price level.
The economically-sensitive financial sector (+0.5%) outperformed as the fed funds futures market continued to price in a higher probability (now 70%) of a rate hike at the December FOMC meeting. Participants will look for further clues regarding the rate hike picture when the FOMC Minutes from the September 21 meeting cross the wires at 2:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Biotechnology ended ahead of the broader health care space (+0.4%), evidenced by the 1.4% gain in the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 288.07, +3.97). Mylan (MYL 38.87, +2.93) surged 8.2% after announcing that it settled claims related to the misclassification of its EpiPen device under the Medicaid rebate program. Mylan agreed to pay $465 million to resolve all potential liability claims by federal and state governments. Separately, Bristol Myers (BMY 49.81, -5.62) plunged 10.1% after Merck's (MRK 63.90, +1.13) Keytruda medication beat out its competing treatment.
The PHLX Semiconductor Index (-0.5%) erased an early gain as Qualcomm (QCOM 67.25, -0.94) ended lower by 1.4%.
The U.S. bond market was closed in observance of Columbus Day. The 10-yr yield settled at 1.72% last Friday.
Today's participation was below the recent average as fewer than 667 million shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.
With the bond market closed today, there were no economic releases. There aren't any major economic releases on Tuesday's economic calendar either.
Russell 2000: +10.1% YTD
Nasdaq Composite: +6.4% YTD
S&P 500: +5.9% YTD
Dow Jones +5.2% YTD
DJ30 +88.55 NASDAQ +36.27 SP500 +9.92 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1987/1.252 bln/838 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2104/666.4 mln/823
3:30 pm :
The dollar index was +0.4% around the 96.93 level, did not appear to affect precious metals
Commodities, as measured by the Bloomberg Commodity Index, were +1.3% around the 86.76 level
Crude oil erased all of Friday's losses, ended near 1-year highs after comments surface from Saudi Arabia & Russia ahead of this week's informal meeting in Istanbul
November crude oil futures rose $1.56 (+3.1%) to $51.32/barrel
Contributing factors affecting the price of oil include:
Today's strength in oil can be largely attributed to comments from Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid Al Falih, who suggested oil could rise to $60/barrel by the end of the year. Al Falih also made comments that were optimistic about the potential for a production cut by November.
Note that Al Falih has made similar comments in the past. Back in June he said $60 oil was "very possible" by the end of the year.
Oil initially weakened overnight as it became apparent that neither Iran nor Iraq would be attending the informal meeting, but oil has since recovered all of these losses and crude oil surged to close near 1-year highs today.
It is also worth noting that Russia's oil minister has expressed they will not be committing to a production cut at this meeting in Istanbul.
The next official OPEC meeting is scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria on November 30.
Data reminders:
Monthly IEA data will be released tomorrow.
API data will be released tomorrow after the bell.
Weekly EIA petroleum data will be released Wed at 10:30 am ET.
Baker Hughes rig count data will be released this Friday at 1 pm ET.
Natural gas saw gains for the third consecutive session ahead of Thursday's EIA data
November natural gas closed $0.07 higher (+2.2%) at $3.27/MMBtu
Weekly EIA natural gas data will be released Thursday at 10:30 am ET.
In precious metals, gold & silver rallied despite continued strength in the dollar index, the gold:silver ratio extended Friday's decline
December gold ended today's session up $7.90 (+0.6%) to $1260.30/oz
December silver closed today's session $0.27 higher (+1.6%) at $17.67/oz
The gold:silver ratio was ~71.3 compared to Friday's pit trading close ratio of ~72.0
Base metal copper finished pit trading near session highs after 3 previous sessions of nearly directionless trading
December copper closed $0.04 higher (+1.9%) at $2.20/lb
Equity indices charged out of the gate, building off a positive bias in global markets. China's Shanghai Composite (+1.5%) outperformed as the index resumed trading following last week's holiday closure. Across the pond, banking names remained in focus as a rebound in shares of Deutsche Bank (DB 13.90, +0.26 +1.91%) aided a similar recovery in regional bourses. Participants initially expressed misgivings after the German lender failed to reach a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the weekend.
An upswing in the commodity complex has also buttressed today's move higher. Crude oil futures have jumped 2.9% ($51.25/bbl; +$1.45) after headlines indicated that Russian President Vladimir Putin supports joining OPEC in a production cap agreement. The Russian leader also indicated that the country may be willing to cut production. Separately, Saudi Arabia's oil minister signaled that oil prices may reach $60.00/bbl before the end of the year. At the end of trading, November crude oil futures were up $1.56 (+3.1%) to $51.32/barrel.
The first half of trade quieted down after the opening hour, which is not too surprising considering banks and the bond market are closed in observation of Columbus Day.
The market closed Monday higher, rebounding off Friday's weakness. The Nasdaq Composite led all others, up 36.27 points (+0.69%) to 5328.67 as Nasdaq 100 components like MYL +8.2%, AAL +3.1%, CTRP +2.3%, TSLA +2.2% and TMUS +1.9% were all strong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 88.55 points (+0.49%) to 18329.04, and the S&P 500 was also strong, higher by 9.92 points (+0.46%) when the day was finished to 2163.66.
Technology (XLK 47.95 +0.33 +0.69%) was one of the better performing S&P sectors today. Component Salesforce.com (CRM 75.10, +4.19 +5.91%) was again tossed around as still holding interest in a deal to acquire Twitter (TWTR 17.56, -2.29 -11.54%), but no definitive deal has been announced. Other sectors as measured by the S&P closed Monday XLE +1.54%, IYZ +1.08%, XLU +0.83%, XLB +0.60%, XLRE +0.55%, XLFS +0.52%, XLF +0.51%, XLV +0.46%, XLY +0.15%, XLI +0.10%, XLP +0.00% as Energy led.
In the S&P 500 Information Technology (806.31, +5.51 +0.69%) sector, trading ended just off highs. Component First Solar (FSLR 38.58, +1.00 +2.66%) was also strong today following news out that the company had commissioned the 52.5 megawatt (MW) AC Shams Ma'an project in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on schedule. Other names in the space which closed higher today included LRCX +1.79%, AAPL +1.75%, GOOGL +1.68%, YHOO +1.62%, GOOG +1.40%, ACN +1.26%, KLAC +1.20%, TDC +1.12%, EA +1.11%, EBAY +1.04%.
Other notable news items among sector components:
Adobe Systems' (ADBE 109.24, +0.60 +0.55%) Chief Accounting Officer, Richard Rowley, notified ADBE of his intention to resign. Rowley expects to remain in his role until January 31.
First Solar (FSLR) commissioned the 52.5 megawatt (MW) AC Shams Ma'an project in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on schedule.
AudioEye (AEYE 0.13, flat) announced a collaboration with ADP (ADP 87.77, +0.40 +0.46%) to further enrich the user experience of ADP's human capital management solution by making it digitally accessible to clients with employees with disabilities.
According to Reuters, EU officials will not investigate Alphabet's (GOOG 785.94, +10.86 +1.40%) tax deals in Europe.
According to Bloomberg, potential bidders (Disney, Alphabet's Google, Salesforce.com) have lost interest in acquiring Twitter (TWTR).
According to The Information, Salesforce.com (CRM) tried to get lobbying efforts to impact regulators' decision regarding Microsoft (MSFT 58.04, +0.24 +0.42%) / LinkedIn (LNKD 190.71, -0.47 -0.25%) M&A deal.
Elsewhere in the tech space:
Twilio (TWLO 52.02, -8.56 -14.13%) filed for a $400 million offering of common stock by it and various selling shareholders.
MobileIron (MOBL 3.57, +0.88 +32.71%) raised its Q3 revenue guidance to $41-42 million from $39-41 million and billings guidance to $46.5-47.5 million, up from $43-45 million.
Twitter (TWTR) in late trade made highs after Fox Business contributor, Charlie Gasparino, suggested there still may be some interest for TWTR, but that the 'magic number' will be between $14-15 per share. TWTR also reported live streaming results of week 5 of Thursday Night Football were up 19% compared to last week.
Mentor Graphics (MENT 27.17, +0.70 +2.64%) acquired Galaxy Semiconductor. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
NICE (NICE 66.98, +0.41 +0.62%) promoted Beth Gaspich to Chief Financial Officer.
Radware (RDWR 12.59, -0.56 -4.26%) lowered its Q3 EPS and revenue guidance to $0.04 and about $47 million, respectively.
Implant Sciences (IMSC 0.11, -0.23 -67.39%) sold the explosives trace detection assets to L-3
Communications (LLL 151.05, -0.55 -0.36%) for $117.5 million in cash, plus the assumption of specified liabilities, and announces filing voluntary petitions under Chapter 11.
Trimble (TRMB 28.60, +0.13 +0.46%) sold its unmanned aircraft system business to Delair-tech. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company subsequently entered into alliances for Delair-Tech and Microdrones to become preferred providers of fixed-wing and multiroter UAS solutions.
Analyst actions:
STM was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Robert W. Baird,
MENT and CDNS were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at DA Davidson;
APIC was downgraded to Mkt Perform from Mkt Outperform at JMP Securities;
NFLX was initiated with a Sell at Deutsche Bank,
FSLR was initiated with a Neutral at Piper Jaffray,
AEHR was initiated with a Buy at Craig Hallum
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
