UTX - Dow Jones News: Microsoft Cloud Demand Soars; United Technologies' Merger Almost Complete
The stock market was staging a small rally on Monday morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) up 1.2% at 11 a.m. EDT. Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump extended social distancing guidelines through the end of April, signaling that the novel coronavirus pandemic won't be over anytime soon.
There are now at least 140,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States, and over 2,500 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the White House's coronavirus task force, recently warned that the death count in the United States could reach 200,000.
The grim news wasn't enough to derail the Dow on Monday. Helping to boost the index was Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), which announced a massive surge in demand for cloud services due to the pandemic. Meanwhile, shares of United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) were little changed after the company announced that its merger with Raytheon would be a done deal by the end of the week.