S&P 500 top movers: Varian Medical Systems Inc (VAR) shares soar to record highs

• S&P 500 Index trades at its highest level since late February.
• Varian Medical Systems Inc (VAR) gains more than 20%.
• Cruise liners’ shares suffer heavy losses on Monday.

Wall Street’s main indexes started the new week on a strong footing and the S&P 500 Index (SPX) touched its highest level since late February at 3,300. As of writing, the SPX was up 0.8% on the day at 3,297.

S&P 500 top movers

Earlier in the day, German health group Siemens Healthineers announced that it reached an agreement to buy Varian Medical Systems Inc (VAR) for $16.4 billion in cash. Boosted by this development, VAR surged to a fresh all-time high of $175.57 on Monday. At the moment, VAR is up 21.6% on a daily basis at $173.53.

Meanwhile, Mckesson Corp (MCK) shares are up more than 6% after the company reported $55.7 billion revenue for the first quarter of fiscal-2021 and beat the market expectation of $53.97 billion. 

On the other hand, major cruise liners’ shares are falling sharply on Monday on reports revealing that at least 41 passengers testing positive for COVID-19 on a Norwegian cruise ship. Carnival Corp (CCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH) shares are among the top decliners, both losing around 4% on Monday.