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Top Heal Care Companies To Own In Right Now

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.17 percent to 16,436.00 while the NASDAQ surged 0.39 percent to 4,111.33. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.24 percent to 1,869.24.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Monday morning, the healthcare sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SRPT) and STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ: STAA). In trading on Monday, basic materials shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.45 percent.

Top losers in the sector included Endeavour Silver (NYSE: EXK), off 4 percent, and Hecla Mining Co (NYSE: HL), down 3.5 percent.

Top Headline
Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) posted a profit in the first quarter. Halliburton swung to a quarterly profit of $622 million, or $0.73 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $18 million, or $0.02 per share. Its income from continuing operations came in at $0.73 per share. Its total revenue climbed to $7.35 billion versus $6.97 billion. However, analysts were estimating earnings of $0.72 per share on revenue of $7.26 billion.

Equities Trading UP
Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SRPT) shares shot up 47.95 percent to $36.10 on announcement that it will file NDA for Eteplirsen for the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy by the year-end.

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) got a boost, shooting up 11.92 percent to $4.13 after the company reported upbeat quarterly earnings and issued a strong Q2 revenue forecast.

AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) shares were also up, gaining 5.75 percent to $67.14 on report of potential acquisition by Pfizer (NYSE: PFE).

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of Moneygram International (NASDAQ: MGI) were 14.99 percent to $12.59. JMP Securities downgraded Moneygram from Market Outperform to Market Perform.

Acacia Research (NASDAQ: ACTG) shares tumbled 6.98 percent to $15.87 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q1 results.

athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) was down, falling 5.80 percent to $137.14 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results. Morgan Stanley analyst Ricky R. Goldwasser removed the $133.00 price target on athenahealth.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.13 percent to $104.44, while gold traded down 0.53 percent to $1,287.00.

Silver traded down 1.10 percent Monday to $19.38, while copper fell 0.23 percent to $3.03.

Eurozone
Europe's markets were quiet with British, Italian, French and German markets all closed for Easter holidays.

Economics
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to 0.20 in March, versus a prior reading of 0.14. However, economists were expecting a reading of 0.20.

The Conference Board's index of leading indicators rose 0.80% in March, versus economists' expectations for a 0.70% growth.

Posted-In: Earnings News Guidance Eurozone Futures Forex Global Econ #s Economics Intraday Update Markets Movers Tech

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