Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.07
percent to 12,824.46 while the NASDAQ rose 0.36 percent to
2,915.29. The S&P also rose, increasing 0.21 percent to
1,382.79.
Top Headline
Jefferies Group announced this morning that it had agreed to sell
itself to Leucadia for $2.76 billion in stock or roughly $17.66
per share. The deal was described by the Jefferies executive team
as one that would allow the company greater freedom and capital
access, adding that the company would now be able to 'go on the
offensive'. The announcement sent Jefferies shares up over 21
percent in the pre-market.
Equities Trading UP
Titanium Metals Corporation (NYSE:
TIE
) rocketed up 42.27 percent to $16.46 following the market
opening after the company announced it would be acquired by
Precision Castparts for $2.9 billion.
Shares of Celgene (NASDAQ:
CELG
) also saw a boost, rising 6.66 percent to $76.26 after
demonstrating positive results from its Phase II pancreatic
cancer drug test.
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:
GILD
) was up as well, rallying 11.14 percent to $72.25 after the
company announced positive data in its Hepatitis C trials.
Equities Trading DOWN
Clovis Oncology (NASDAQ:
CLVS
) plummeted 33.69 percent to $14.25 after the company released
negative results from its pancreatic cancer study Sunday
evening.
Molycorp (NYSE:
MCP
) was also down, falling 10 percent to $6.75 following the
announcement of an SEC probe into the company.
Shares of JC Penney (NYSE:
JCP
) continued their fall Monday, tumbling 6.01 percent to $19.40
following a poor earnings release last week and a cut at
S&P.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.10 percent to $86.16, while
gold traded up 0.59 percent to $1,740.70.
Silver traded up 0.27 percent Monday to $32.56.
Eurozone
European markets rose mostly Monday morning following Greece's
austerity vote last week, aside from the Spanish Ibex which fell
slightly.
In news around Europe, Italian prime minister Mario Monti
released a statement indicating that the country had no plans of
taking a bailout.
Spain's Luis De Guindos also came out with a statement,
issuing a more optimistic forecast for the nation than the EU and
IMF had shown in the past few weeks. He went on to say that
Spain's forecasting was conservative, but not set in stone.
Economics
There were no major US economic releases Monday.
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