Stock Market Update
21-Sep-26 15:35 ET
Major averages tracking for sturdy gains
Dow +410.47
at 52093.11,
Nasdaq +643.29
at 27186.88,
S&P +124.39
at 7774.89
[BRIEFING.COM] The major averages remain on track to finish the first session of the week with robust gains.
Moderna (MRNA 173.51, +19.47, +12.64%) is surging to multi-year highs after announcing that three abstracts involving its individualized mRNA cancer therapy, intismeran autogene, were accepted for presentation at the ESMO Congress 2026 in October. The centerpiece will be late-breaking Phase III INTerpath-001 data in resected melanoma, which showed intismeran autogene in combination with Merck (MRK 149.97, +3.10, +2.11%) Keytruda outperformed Keytruda alone on recurrence-free and distant-metastasis-free survival.
The results will receive a high-profile Presidential Symposium presentation, adding to enthusiasm surrounding Moderna's oncology pipeline.
The gain helps the health care sector (+0.7%) buck the trend of more defensive sectors underperforming today, as the consumer staples (-0.2%) and utilities (-0.3%) sectors remain modestly below their baselines.
