US Stocks rise on Covid-19 vaccine hopes, M&A optimism

The US stock market closed firmly in positive territory on Monday, 14 September 2020, on signs of progress in developing a COVID-19 vaccine and a spurt of multi-billion dollar deals. However, market gains capped on caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve two-day policy meeting where it is expected to hold rates while elaborating on the already-announced shift to inflation targeting.

At closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index inclined 327.69 points, or 1.18%, to 27,993.33. The S&P 500 index added 42.57 points, or 1.27%, to 3,383.54. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 203.11 points, or 1.87%, to 11,056.65.

M&A optimism helped investor sentiment on Monday. Oracle and TikTok will become business partners in the United States, and chip-maker Nvidia has agreed to buy British peer ARM for $40 billion from Softbank.

Sentiment was also boosted by positive news on the vaccine front, with AstraZeneca resuming its phase three trial in the United Kingdom and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla saying over the weekend the company should be able to present key data from its trial to regulators by the end of October.

Traders are looking ahead to the two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve beginning on Tuesday, in which central bankers may elaborate further on their new average inflation targeting strategy that will keep interest rates lower for longer in a bid to maximize employment.

Oracle shares gained after the tech company won the bidding for the U.S. operations of video-sharing app TikTok after the video sharing app's parent company ByteDance rejected a proposal from Microsoft.

Nvidia Corp jumped after it agreed to buy British chip-designer Arm Holdings for more than $40 billion from SoftBank Group Corp

Amazon shares advanced after announcing it would hire 100,000 new employees and open 100 new facilities in the US and Canada.

Pfizer Inc gained after the drugmaker and German biotech firm BioNTech SE proposed to expand their Phase 3 pivotal COVID-19 vaccine trial to about 44,000 participants.

Among Indian ADR, INFOSYS added 3.76% to $13.24, Azure Power Global inclined 1.92% to $26.50, WNS Holdings rose 0.2% to $65.21, Wipro grew 4.06% to $4.61, and Tata Motors added 3.71% to $10.07. HDFC Bank fell 1.03% to $48.82, Dr Reddys Labs dropped 0.35% to $59.69, ICICI Bank was down 1.39% to $9.96, and Vedanta fell 0.56% to $7.09.

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