After a week long marathon of talks ministers from the OPEC+ alliance and the Group of 20 nations, Saudi Arabia and Russia ended their oil price war on Sunday, paving the way for an agreement on output cuts. OPEC+ will cut 9.7 million barrels per day, which would be nearly 10% of global supply and more than twice the cuts seen during the global financial crisis, but officials, and President Trump, suggested that the cuts could end up being much greater, at around a fifth of global supply. Meanwhile, President Trump claims that he, not state governors, will be the one to make the call about when states begin to reopen. While oil is up on the production cuts news, stocks are not following suit as investors sell the major averages down ahead of earnings reports starting tomorrow from some of the nation's biggest banks.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., no data of note was reported. In Europe, markets are closed for Easter Monday and some Asian markets are shut as well.
TOP NEWS: Gilead (GILD) announced results from an analysis of 53 patients hospitalized with severe complications of COVID-19 who were treated with the investigational antiviral remdesivir on an individual compassionate use basis, reporting an improvement in oxygen support class for 68% of patients over a median follow-up of 18 days from the first dose of remdesivir. Shares of Gilead are up 1% following the update that several Wall Street analysts called "encouraging."
Ford (F) announced that it currently expects to report revenue of about $34B and first quarter adjusted losses before interest and taxes of about $600M, which excludes about $300M of special-item charges. Tim Stone, Ford's CFO, said that while the company "opportunistically" assesses funding options it foresses sufficient cash "to get us through at least the end of the third quarter with no incremental vehicle production and wholesales or financing actions." The company is considering a scenario for a phased restart of its manufacturing plants, supply network and other dependent functions beginning in the second quarter, Ford added.
eBay (EBAY) shares are 2% higher near midday after the company appointed Jamie Iannone, who was most recently COO of Walmart (WMT) eCommerce, as the marketplace operator's CEO, effective April 27.
Additionally, shares of Amazon (AMZN) are up 5% after the company said that its previously communicated 100,000 jobs pledge is filled and it is going to continue to hire, creating an additional 75,000 jobs to "help serve customers during this unprecedented time."
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was BioCryst (BCRX), which rose 13% after it opened enrollment for its galidesivir trial in patients with COVID-19.
Also higher was Athersys (ATHX), which gained 17% after the FDA authorized its Phase 2/3 study to assess the efficacy of MultiStem therapy in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome induced by the novel coronavirus disease.
Among the notable losers was Sabre (SABR), which declined 20% after the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority blocked the company's acquisition of Farelogix.
Also lower was AMC Entertainment (AMC), which fell 20% after the New York Post reported that the company is nearing a potential bankruptcy and is in talks to hire bankruptcy law firm Weil Gotshal.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was down 495.31, or 2.09%, to 23,224.06 , the Nasdaq was down 57.21, or 0.70%, to 8,096.37 , and the S&P 500 was down 50.98, or 1.83%, to 2,738.84 .
