Stocks closed with small gains, just off all-time intraday highs hit Monday, as M&A activity fueled a fourth consecutive advance in the equity market. Multi-billion dollar acquisitions between Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) and Hillshire Brands (NYSE:HSH), Idenix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IDIX) and Merck (NYSE:MRK) as well as Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI) for Hittite Microwave (NASDAQ:HITT) brought the Dow and S&P 500 closer to their key psychological levels of 17,000 and 2,000.
Tech shares outperformed most of the other sectors driving the NASDAQ Composite to an 11-week high, with gains led by shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) after the 7-for-1 stock split priced the stock at a more affordable $92. In other corporate news, Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) split off its magazine division with the debut of Time Inc. (TIME) which kicked off trading at $22.55 per share.
In related markets, Treasury yields inched up another 2 basis points, Crude Oil jumped to $104 per barrel and Gold stayed below $1,260 for the sixth consecutive day.
Here's Where The Markets Stood At The Close
US MARKETS
- Dow Jones Industrial Index was up 18 points (0.1%) at 16,943
- S&P 500 was up 1.8 points (+0.1%) at 1,951
- Nasdaq Composite Index was up 14 points (+0.3%) at 4,336
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
- FTSE 100 was up 0.24%
- Nikkei 225 was up 0.31%
- Hang Seng Index was up 0.73%
- Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.03%
UPSIDE MOVERS
- (+) HITT Analog Devices (ADI) offers $78 per share for the company
- (+) IDIX To be acquired by Merck (MRK) for $24.50 per share
- (+) FDO Carl Icahn revealed a 9.4% active stake in the company
- (+) ACFN Insider buying boosts stock
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
- (-) GMCR Reverses Friday's gains tied to deal speculation
- (-) RAD Seeking Alpha article expects more downside
After Hours Stock News From Midnight Trader.
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