Nasdaq And S&P 500 Close At Their Highs For The Session

(RTTNews) - After showing a lack of direction throughout much of morning trading on Monday, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the session. The gains on the day extended the strong upward move that was seen last week.

Extending a recent upward trend, pharmaceutical stocks showed a strong move to the upside on the day. Reflecting the strength in the sector, the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index surged up by 1.7 percent.

AstraZeneca (AZN) helped to lead the pharmaceutical sector higher, with the drug maker jumping by 8.8 percent amid reports that Pfizer (PFE) had been in negotiations to acquire the company.

Significant strength also emerged among biotechnology stocks, as reflected by the 1.3 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. With the gain, the index climbed further off the three-month closing low that it set last Monday.

Computer hardware, oil service, and semiconductor stocks also saw notable strength on the day, while most of the other major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves.

The major averages all closed in positive territory, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 at their best levels of the day. The Dow rose 40.71 points or 0.3 percent to 16,449.25, the Nasdaq advanced 26.03 points or 0.6 percent to 4,121.55 and the S&P 500 climbed 7.04 points or 0.4 percent to 1,871.89.