US pre-open: Stocks set for higher start despite crash in Inovio shares
INOVIO PHARMACTCLS
$10.16
10:59 24/04/24
The buying pressure seen on Wall Street at the end of the prior week appeared to be carrying over into Monday.
As of 1358 BST, the Dow Jones Industrials mini contract was running up by 371 points to 27,414.0, alongside gains of 46.5 and 205 points to 3,333.75 and 11,341.5 for similar contracts tracking the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 respectively.
To take note of, the two presidential contenders, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, were due to face off in a televised debate the next day.
Some analysts were also cautious ahead of Friday's monthly non-farm payrolls report, which might validate concerns that the US jobs market is indeed about to stall.
"That optimism will certainly be put to the test this week, with the first US Presidential debate taking place Tuesday evening, jobs report coming Friday, a flurry of economic data the rest of the week and more Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels as the mid-October deadline fast approaches," said Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam.
No major economic reports were scheduled for release on Monday.
On the corporate front meanwhile, all eyes were on Inovio after the US Food and Drug Administration placed a partial hold on the biotechnology outfit's phase 2/3 trial of its Covid-19 vaccine.
A report on Sunday by the New York Times alleged that Trump had not paid any personal income tax in 10 of the last 15 years.
That followed another report, published by US Senate Republicans on 23 September, calling into question the potential for conflicts of interest due to Biden's son position on the board of Ukrainian natural gas outfit Burisma during his father's tenure as Vice-president and a time when he was responsible for relations with Kiev.
There was also a flurry of trans-Atlantic M&A news on Monday.
Cleveland-Cliffs agreed to purchase ArcelorMittal's US assets for an estimated enterprise value of $3.3bn.
Caesars Entertainment meanwhile disclosed that it had offered £2.9bn to acquire William Hill.
Devon Energy was also in the spotlight after announcing that it would combine with peer WPX Energy, with the combined company expected to have an enterprise value, the sum of its equity and debt minus cash and equivalents, of approximately $12bn.