U.S. stock market indexes opened in green on Thursday. The S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones are ready for another session of records highs, with investors awaiting several speeches by Federal Reserve officials. Further, the dollar index is near a two-month high of 93.83.
Biogen Inc.'s (BIIB, Financial) stock rose more than 2% in premarket trading as the biotechnology company was upgraded at Morgan Stanley. Analyst Matthew Harrison raised the rating to overweight and boosted the price target to $375 from $311. Shares were up ahead of the announcement of encouraging new data on spinal muscular atrophy medicine Spinraza(nusinersen). For Harrison, Spinraza has the potential to become a $4 billion asset.
The stock has surged 17% over the past three months and slightly more than 10% on a year-to-date basis.
Gainers
- Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX, Financial)
- Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ, Financial)
- Biogen Inc. (BIIB, Financial)
- Netflix Inc. (NFLX, Financial)
- AmerisourceBergen Corp. (ABC)
- Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN)
- Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN)
- Macerich Co. (MAC, Financial)
Losers
- Navient Corp. (NAVI, Financial)
- Celgene Corp. (CELG)
- Acuity Brands Inc. (AYI, Financial)
- L Brands Inc. (LB, Financial)
- Alaska Air Group Inc. ”‹(ALK)
- Sempra Energy (SRE, Financial)
- United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS, Financial)
Global markets
The main European stock markets traded lower, while banks were trading in the red for the second consecutive day due to Spain's political tensions. The European Central Bank will require banks to provision more money against bad loans. The FTSE 100 gained 0.54%, France's CAC 40 rose 0.30% and the IBEX 35 jumped 2.51%. On the other hand,Germany’s DAX was down 0.02%.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed with little variation after reaching a two-year high on Wednesday. The Nikkei advanced 0.01% to close at 20,628.56 points. On Wednesday, it reached 20,689.08, its highest level since August 2015.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
