It was another solid session in the stock market today. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) rallied 0.77%, hitting new 52-week highs on Monday. It wasn’t alone either, with the PowerShares QQQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) hitting new all-time highs too.
The rallies just keep on coming.
While equities failed to rally on Friday despite a better-than-expected jobs report, investors had to realize how hard the stock market rallied into the event. Still, Monday’s rebound may be surprising many on Wall Street.
On Sunday morning, U.S. stock futures opened near flat before quickly falling in the evening. Before long though, they were green, as stocks continue to brush off coronavirus updates. The death toll has now topped 900, with more than 40,000 infected. Even though there will be clear economic impacts, it just doesn’t seem to be a concern in the stock market today.
Merger Monday
Real estate investment trust (REIT) investors have seen better days, at least when it comes to shopping center REITs.
Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) will acquire an 80% stake in Taubman Realty Group, acquiring all of Taubman (NYSE:TCO) for $3.6 billion. The all-cash deal works out to $52.50 per share for TCO and represents a more than 50% premium to Friday’s closing price.
L Brands (NYSE:LB) shares were higher by more than 6% in pre-market trading. However, shares shed some of those gains throughout the day, despite investors still expecting an announcement this week about the company selling its Victoria’s Secret unit.
The rumored buyer? Sycamore Partners. A price hasn’t been reported yet, but the VS business generated more than $7 billion in sales last year.
Xerox (NYSE:XRX) shares inched higher Monday after it revised its bid for HP (NYSE:HPQ) to $24 per share, up from $22 per share. Approximately $18.40 per share would be in cash, with the rest coming in XRX stock. While HPQ was up almost 5% in pre-market trading, it finished higher by just 0.8%.
Movers in the Stock Market Today
Slack (NYSE:WORK) shares surged in the stock market today, up 15.4% on reports that International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) will move its entire team onto the platform. That’s 350,000 people, by the way.
Slack was one of our top stock trades from Monday.
Bitcoin prices are pulling back a bit on Feb. 10, but that didn’t stop investors from celebrating a bit over the weekend. The cryptocurrency topped $10,000 on Sunday, as it jumped almost 3%. It was bitcoin’s highest close since September and has bulls feeling that more upside could be in store.
While Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL, NASDAQ:GOOG) hit new all-time highs on Monday, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) did its best just to close green on the day, up 0.3%. The company gears up for its trial against the IRS, where it faces a tax liability of roughly $9 billion. That’s a significant sum for any company, FB included.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock raced higher on Monday, up over 12% at one point on the day. However, shares finished higher by just 3.1%, even after reports say that employees are back to work at its Shanghai Gigafactory. Of course, the stock’s initial rally was helped along by a suggestion that Alphabet should buy Tesla for $1,500 per share.
Ford (NYSE:F) and Daimler (OTCMKTS:DDAIF) are resuming their Chinese production as well, while General Motors (NYSE:GM) is waiting until Feb. 15. Toyota (NYSE:TM) and Honda (NYSE:HMC) are also holding back for now.
Ouch, the Oscars ratings were downright painful, which drew 23.6 million viewers. While still a lot of viewers, that figure was down 20% year-over-year and below the prior low from 2018. The numbers are down more than 45% from the 2014 peak. Despite ABC’s disappointment, Disney (NYSE:DIS) stock still rallied 1% on the day.
Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long AMZN and DIS.