Wall Street finished mixed but with a positive bias on Monday.
U.S. stocks swung between gains and losses all day on Monday as U.S. oil futures fell under $32 a barrel on Monday for the first time since December.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial (INDEXDJX:.DJI) was up 0.3% at 16,399; the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) was up 0.1% at 1,924; while the Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) dipped 0.1% to 4.638.
February West Texas Intermediate crude shed 4.5% to $31.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil was pummeled by a stronger dollar and worries over Chinese demand.
This week marks the start of fourth-quarter earnings season. Alcoa (NYSE:AA) will report after the close, in what’s expected to be its worst quarterly results since early 2014.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) advanced 1.7% to $98.59 after the technology giant was upgraded at Mizuho Securities, which said it believes the recent selloff has left investors with “meaningful” upside potential.
US Open
US markets have turned their backs on more carnage in Chinese markets to open modestly higher.
The Dow Jones average was up 40 points (0.2%) at 16,386 after 45 minutes of trading, while the Nasdaq Composite was up five points (0.1%) at 4,651 and the S&P 500 was also up five points (0.3%), at 1,927.
Baxalta (NYSE:BXLT) was up 30 cents at US$40.31 after settling on terms with Shire (LON:SHP) in a deal that values the US pharma giant at around US$32bn.
In other bid news, Affymetrix (NASDAQ:AFFX) was almost 50% higher at US$13.715 after agreeing last week to be bought out by Thermo Fisher Scientific for US$14 a share in cash.
Elsewhere in the pharmaceutical sector the news has been less good, with Swiss drugs giant Novartis informing drug developer GenVec (NASDAQ:GNVC) that it is pausing enrolment in the clinical trial of CGF166 to conduct a safety review of patient data, based on the recommendation of the trial’s data safety monitoring board. The trial will continue to collect new safety and efficacy data on patients currently enrolled in the study.
The news sent GenVec's shares plunging by more than 60%.
Pre-open
After Friday's shake-out, which saw the main benchmarks fall by around 1%, equities are set for a steady start to the week.
Despite another set of underwhelming data over the weekend in China, which led to Chinese shares getting clobbered, the Dow Jones is tipped to open at around 16,390, after closing at 16,346 on Friday, while the S&P 500, which finished last week at 1,922, is seen opening at around 1,929, according to spread betting quotes.
“Weekend data from China was not particularly encouraging, while gyrations in the Chinese FX [foreign exchange] market continues, but as with any story eventually the power to shock wears off. We are seeing this with China this morning, and while there will still be plenty of concerns, the impending arrival of US earnings season provides a new story to focus on,” suggested Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at spread betting outfit IG.
In pre-market trading, DNA sequencing specialist Illumina (NYSE:ILMN) was wanted, after it announced plans to spin-off part of its business. The new company, to be called Grail, will develop a quick-and-easy blood test that identifies cancers in patients that are showing no symptoms of cancer.
Elsewhere in the pharmaceuticals world, Shire (LON:SHP) and Baxalta (NYSE:BXLT) have finally settled on a price for their merger. The terms value Baxalta at around US$32bn.
After the close, aluminum maker Alcoa (NYSE:AA) will, as is traditional, kick off the quarterly earning season.
In the newspapers, just about all of the front pages are dominated by news of the passing of David Bowie, who has died aged 69, having lost his battle against cancer.
Even the Wall Street Journal finds space to pay tribute, but then he was the first major musician to raise cash in the money markets with securities that were backed by future royalty earnings.
USA Today focuses on last week's International Consumer Electronics Show and picks its favorites.
The New York Times reckons times is running out for Marissa Mayer, described as “the glamorous, geeky Google executive hired to turn around Yahoo in 2012”.
Finally, the Washington Post noted that the Powerball lottery jackpot rose to US$800mln on Friday, which is a record level.
Lottery sales boomed on Friday, because for most people, earning a “mere” US$400mln or so in a regular jackpot win is clearly not enough.