(MENAFN- AFP) US stocks Monday moved higher in early trade, extending Friday's rally and building momentum from strong gains in international equity markets.
About 70 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 51.47 points (0.31 percent) to 16,605.40.
The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 10.01 (0.52 percent) to 1,941.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 35.80 (0.82 percent) at 4,406.70.
Markets in Tokyo, Paris, London and Frankfurt all posted large gains as investors weighed improving US economic data with geopolitical tensions involving Ukraine, Iraq and Israel.
The equity advances followed a weekend of no major, negative international surprises to alter the momentum from Friday, said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities.
"The market is going up because nothing negative happened," James said. "Nothing good happened, but nothing bad happened" either, he said.
Pipeline and infrastructure company Kinder Morgan announced it will acquire three other related Kinder Morgan entities and merge the companies into a single company in transactions valued at roughly $71 billion. Kinder Morgan said the deal will better position it to grow through acquisition or by developing large new infrastructure projects. Kinder Morgan rose 5.2 percent.
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals jumped 20.7 percent as investors look ahead to the company's results on Wednesday. US regulators last week loosened restrictions on the use of its experimental drug to treat the Ebola virus.
Online travel company Priceline rose 2.6 percent as earnings of $12.51 per share bested analyst expectations by 47 cents.
Biopharmaceutical company MannKind jumped 13.9 percent as it announced a worldwide licensing deal with French pharma giant Sanofi to commercialize the Afrezza insulin therapy.
Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.43 percent from 2.42 percent Friday, while the 30-year held steady at 3.23 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.