* Xerox will buy ACS; Abbott to buy Solvay's drugs unit
* Cisco jumps on upgrade, other big-cap techs also advance
* DJIA flirting with best quarter since 1998
* Dow up 1.3 pct; S&P 500 up 1.8 pct; Nasdaq up 1.9 pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click [STXNEWS/US] (Adds new paragraphs with pharmaceuticals index's gains and volume figures)
By Ellis Mnyandu
NEW YORK, Sept 28 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rallied on Monday, snapping a three-day losing streak, as a spurt of corporate takeovers in the technology and health-care sectors fueled optimism about share values.
Mergers and acquisitions are typically viewed as bullish as it suggests companies are more optimistic about the business outlook.
A number of deals were announced and investors bet more
could follow. Xerox Corp
"It's always a positive sign when you see companies putting money to work, whether they buy other companies, invest in new plants, (or) buy back their own stock," said Tim Smalls, head of U.S. stock trading at brokerage firm Execution LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut.
"With depressed stock prices, like we've had over the past year and a half, a lot of companies will find it cheaper to buy a company than to grow that same type of company organically. It's a more effective way to put money to work sometimes."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 124.17 points, or 1.28 percent, to end at 9,789.36. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> gained 18.60 points, or 1.78 percent, to 1,062.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> shot up 39.82 points, or 1.90 percent, to 2,130.74.
With Monday's gains, the Dow Jones industrial average held an advance of about 16 percent in the quarter so far, which would make it the index's best such period since the fourth quarter of 1998.
But the end of the third quarter on Wednesday may spur volatility as fund managers engage in what is known as "window dressing" -- when they sell laggards in favor of outperformers to spruce up portfolios at quarter's end.
In the last three sessions, the S&P 500 had declined more than 2 percent after rallying nearly 60 percent from the 12-year closing low of early March.
MERGER MONDAY
Abbott climbed 2.6 percent to $48.58, while Affiliated Computer advanced 14 percent to $53.86.
Xerox, which valued the cash-and-stock deal for Affiliated at an initial $6.4 billion, sank 14.5 percent to $7.68. For details on Xerox, see [ID:nN28526962]. For details on Abbott, see [ID:nLS426471]]
Other deals on Monday included U.S. diversified health-care
company Johnson & Johnson's
The pharmaceuticals index <.DRG> climbed 1.3 percent.
Crucell fell 6.6 percent to $22.13 on Nasdaq, but J&J, a Dow component, was up 1.1 percent at $61.27 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Apple Inc
Apple provided the Nasdaq's top boost, followed by chip
maker Qualcomm Inc
Cisco Systems Inc
Dow Chemical Co
Other industrial standouts were U.S. aircraft manufacturer
and defense contractor Boeing Co
The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur observed on Monday kept volume lighter, with only about 979.3 million shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, compared with last year's estimated daily average of 1.49 billion. On the Nasdaq, about 1.92 billion shares traded, below last year's daily average of 2.28 billion.
Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of about 4 to 1 on the NYSE, while on Nasdaq, about 10 stocks rose for every seven that fell. (Editing by Jan Paschal)