S&P500 +17 to 4771 - Market Commentary from Briefing.com
Midday Stock Market Summary
The stock market is continuing its winning ways, trading with a positive bias after eight consecutive winning weeks for the major indices. Today's positive price action comes amid the Santa Claus rally period, which is the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days of the new year.
Volume has been light so far due to many investors remaining in vacation-mode ahead of another extended holiday weekend. Still, buying activity has been broad and orderly. The A-D line favors advancers by a 7-to-2 margin at the NYSE and a nearly 2-to-1 margin at the Nasdaq.
The Russell 2000 is outperforming other major indices, trading up 1.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.3%), S&P 500 (+0.4%), and Nasdaq Composite (+0.4%) sport more modest gains.
Notably, the major indices are trading near session highs despite losses in some of their most influential constituents. Apple (AAPL 193.24, -0.34, -0.2%), Microsoft (MSFT 374.02, -0.56, -0.2%), and Amazon.com (AMZN 153.26, -0.15, -0.1%) are among the standouts in that respect.
Some M&A activity in the biotech space has contributed to the positive bias due to the large premiums being paid rather than the actual size of the deals. Bristol-Myers (BMY 51.31, -0.98, -1.9%) is acquiring RayzeBio (RYZB 61.39, +30.82, +100.8%) for $62.50 per share in cash, which is a 104% premium over Friday's closing price, and AstraZeneca (AZN 66.35, +0.06, +0.1%) is acquiring Gracell Biotechnologies (GRCL 9.90, +3.71, +60.0%) for an upfront cash portion of $10.00 per ADS, which is a 62% premium over Friday's closing price.
Only one S&P 500 sector trades down -- health care (-0.03%) -- while the remaining ten sectors show gains ranging from 0.1% to 1.3%. The energy sector leads the pack, rising alongside oil prices ($75.89/bbl, +2.33, +3.2%), which are responding to geopolitical angst tied to a weekend report that an oil tanker near India was struck by an Iranian drone.
The 2-yr note yield is up four basis points to 4.37% and the 10-yr note yield is unchanged at 3.90%.
