Investing.com -- U.S. stocks rallied from a considerable sell-off late last week, as investors continued to react to the fallout from the Federal Open Market Committee's decision to hold short-term interest rates at their current near-zero level.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Composite index posted solid gains to close higher for the first time in three sessions, while the NASDAQ Composite index turned positive late in the session despite a weak performance among biotech stocks. The Dow added 125.61 or 0.77% to 16,510.19, while the NASDAQ rose 1.73 or 0.04% to close Monday's session at 4,828.96.
The S&P 500, meanwhile, gained 8.94 or 0.46% to 1,966.97, as nine of 10 sectors closed in the green. Stocks in the Financial, Technology and Consumer Services industries led, each gaining at least 0.75% on the session. The Dow and the S&P 500 are still on pace to finish the third quarter with their worst three-month period since 2011.
NASDAQ biotech stocks were crushed on Monday. on the heels from a report by the New York Times, which documented alleged widespread price gouging in the pharmaceutical industry. In one instance, Turing Pharmaceutical, increased the price of a medication from $13.50 to $750 per dosage, according to the Times. In response, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, took to Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) to excoriate the manufacturer.
"Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous. Tomorrow I'll lay out a plan to take it on," Clinton said on her Twitter account.
Daraprim, the drug in question, is a tablet used to treat a life-threatening parasitic infection.
"We definitely planned on raising the price, that's for sure," Turing CEO Martin Shkreli told CNBC's Power Lunch. "We paid a very, very large amount to buy an unprofitable medicine. We can't continue to lose money at that price so we took it to a price where we could make a profit, but not any ridiculous profit."
The top performer on the Dow was Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which gained 1.76 or 1.55% to 115.21, amid developments with its automated vehicle model. Last week, The Guardian reported that executives from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) met with officials from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to discuss their outlines for a proposed self-driving vehicle. On Monday, Apple accelerated its timeline for the car's release setting a target for a 2019 launch.The worst performer was Merck (NYSE:MRK), which fell 1.15 or 2.21% to 50.98. Shares in Merck are now down by nearly 2.50% over the last year.
The biggest gainer on the NASDAQ was Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE), which rose 2.07 or 2.55% to 83.32. The worst performer was Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB), which plummeted 17.51 or 5.56% to 297.16. A host of other biotech stocks, including Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VRTX), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN), Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN), Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG), Mylan (NASDAQ:MYL) and Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN) were among the laggards on the NASDAQ during the session.
The top performer on the S&P was CarMax Inc (NYSE:KMX), which added 2.40 or 3.98% to 62.67, ahead of the release of its second quarter financial results on Tuesday. Analysts expect CarMax (NYSE:KMX) to report per share earnings of 0.76 on nearly $4 billion in revenue. The worst performer was Mallinckrodt (NYSE:MNK) which plunged 8.23 or 10.02% to 73.87.
On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a 1,859 to 1,265 margin.