Shares of Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. CBI, +12.12% rocketed 15.4% in morning trade and McDermott International Inc.'s stock MDR, +7.67% ran up 10.2%, to place first and second among the NYSE's biggest gainers list, after the proposed merger partners provided upbeat preliminary first-quarter outlooks. CB&I, an energy industry infrastructure company, said it expected to report first-quarter earnings per share of 37 cents to 43 cents, including restructuring charges of 3 cents to 5 cents, compared with the FactSet consensus for EPS excluding non-recurring items of 39 cents. Revenue is expected to be $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion, well above the FactSet consensus of $1.55 billion. McDermott said it expects first-quarter adjusted EPS of 15 cents to 17 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 6 cents, while the company's revenue guidance of $600 million to $610 million was below expectations of $618.4 million as of March 29. CB&I is scheduled to report results on April 23 and McDermott is slated to report results on April 24. The companies said they remain "fully committed" to completing their proposed merger, which was announced in December 2017 and is expected to close during the second quarter. CB&I's stock has slipped 3.4% year to date, while McDermott shares have gained 0.5% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.90% has eased 0.2%.