NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks jumped early Monday with Apple gaining on news of more trouble with rival smartphone-maker Samsung and petroleum-linked shares advancing on higher oil prices.Apple rose 1.6% as Samsung Electronics acknowledged it was adjusting production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone due to reports that replacement units for devices with exploding lithium-ion batteries are also catching fire.Dow members ExxonMobil and Chevron both picked up more than one percent as US oil prices climbed above $50 a barrel.About 35 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 18,381,53, up 0.8%.The broad-based S & P 500 advanced 0.7% to 2,168.73 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.9% to 5,338.80.Mylan soared 9.4% after it announced late Friday that it reached a settlement with some regulators to pay US$465mil to resolve accusations that it overbilled the federal Medicaid programme for the EpiPen allergy medication.Twitter dived 12.7% following reports that several prospective acquirers of the company are no longer interested in bidding. One of the most often-mentioned names, Salesforce.com, jumped 6.1%; its shares had been beaten down after news surfaced that it was interested in Twitter.Dow member Merck added 1.7% as it released research at an oncology conference in Denmark showing a strong performance for its Keytruda treatment for lung cancer in clinical tests.Rival Bristol-Myers Squibb fell 9.1% after its treatment for the same condition performed “worse than expected,” said a note from Jefferies.

Source: The Star October 10, 2016 15:50 UTC