Dow Climbs as Mergers and Vaccines Make Stock Market Forget Last Week’s Selloff

The biggest M&A news, though isn’t an acquisition at all. Oracle (ORCL) will become TikTok’s partner, rather than new owner. That still might be enough to walk the line between demands from both Washington and Beijing. Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post sees the deal as “possibly satisfying U.S. requirements that a U.S. tech company controls all U.S. users' data, and Chinese requirements that TikTok technology remains controlled by a Chinese company.”

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca (AZN) said it would resume a vaccine trial after it had been halted when a participant became ill. “There are still plenty of uncertainties, and developing an effective vaccine is a long-term process,” Axicorp analyst Milan Cutkovic says. “However, investors are reacting positively to every progress made in the fight against Covid-19.”

Among stocks on the move Monday, Delta Air Lines (DAL) is up 2% on news it will raise $6.5 billion, backed by its frequent flier program.

Gilead Sciences (GILD) is up 4.1% on news its buying Immunomedics (IMMU) for $21 billion, one of the most expensive biopharma deals in years.

Kroger (KR) is down 3.9% following a downgrade from Bank of America Merrill Lynch that asks how long the supermarket’s pandemic-boost can last.

Nikola (NKLA) is up 3.8% after its latest rebuttal to a short seller.

Write to Teresa Rivas at teresa.rivas@barrons.com