Elena
07 May, 2007
New York City
U.S. market averages continued to post gains on Monday morning, boosted by merger activity. Liberty Mutual Group agreed to buy Ohio Casualty Corp. in a cash deal worth $2.7 billion, or $44 a share. The bid represents a 32% premium to Ohio Casualty''s closing price on Friday. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 of 2007. Shares of Ohio Casualty surged nearly 30%.
Elena
07 May, 2007
New York City
Britain''s military contractor BAE Systems agreed to acquire Armor Holdings, a U.S. maker of military and heavy vehicles, Humvee armaments and soldier body armor. The deal is valued at $88 a share, or $4.1 billion and represents a 7% premium to the Armor Holdings'' Friday close. Armor Holdings stock climbed 5.3%.
Elena
07 May, 2007
New York City
Wall Street opened in the positive, boosted by merger activity. However, cautiousness ahead of Fed''s interest rate decision limited early gains. A $33 billion bid by Alcoa for Canadian aluminum rival Alcan helped the Dow cross 13,300 for the first time. ABN Amro turned down a $24.5 billion offer for its U.S. bank LaSalle from a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland because of the numerous conditions attached. Instead, the company opted for a $21 billion offer from Bank of America.
Elena
07 May, 2007
New York City
U.S. stock market futures were volatile in the pre-opening hours, as positive sentiment generated by optimism over a merger in the aluminum sector was offset by cautiousness before key interest rate decisions in the U.S. and Europe later in the week. Merger-and-acquisition news was in the spotlight after Alcoa said it is planning to launch a buyout bid for rival Alcan for $33 billion.
Ivaylo
07 May, 2007
New York City
Asian markets surged to records on Monday, supported by advances in the technology sector and on hopes that weaker job growth in the U.S. will make the Federal Reserve cut interest rates. Japanese markets rallied on the first day of trading after an extended holiday break. Indexes in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand advacned to records.
Ivaylo
07 May, 2007
New York City
The benchmark index opened with a positive bias on firm Asian markets and traded in positive territory in early deals on strong demand in large-cap stocks and especially in Reliance Industries. The Sensex plunged in the latter part of trading, mainly in weakness in IT stocks, while oil and gas shares advanced. Wipro and Satyam led the decliners, Ranbaxy was the best performing stock. A conglomerate of banks is buying 41% of BSE.
Elena
07 May, 2007
New York City
Alcoa said that assuming debt would boost the deal to $33 billion. The offer includes $58.60 per share in cash and 0.4108 of a share of Alcoa common stock for each outstanding Alcan common share. Alcoa is planning to begin its offer for Alcan on May 8 and finish the transaction by the end of 2008. Shares of Alcoa slipped 4.4% in pre-market trading, while Alcan''s stock soared 23.7%.
Ivaylo
07 May, 2007
New York City
European markets opened higher on Monday, responding to gains in overseas markets, the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as next president of France and the sale of two education units by Reed Elsevier. There were holidays in several European countries and the U.K. stock market was shut, keeping volumes low. The French CAC 40 rose 0.2%, after the favored candidateof the market, the conservative Sarkozy, defeated Segolene Royal in a vote on Sunday, while the German DAX 30 rose 0.2%.
Ivaylo
07 May, 2007
New York City
A decline in the U.S. dollar tracking a disappointing jobs report on Friday provided the drive for gold to continue its rally. The market has blamed the weaker tone of the dollar on news that U.S. employment last month grew at the slowest pace since November 2004. All the other precious metals also advanced. All energy stocks finished lower.
123jump.com Staff
04 May, 2007
New York City
U.S. averages rose despite weaker than expected non-farm payroll rise in April. The payroll rose by 88,000 and unemployment rose to 4.5%. Traders focused on resumption of merger exploration talk between Microsoft and Yahoo. Yahoo jumped 10% on the news. Eastman kodak reported 53 cents per share loss. European merger and takeover has reached a new peak with the possible Cigarette company deal in Spain, a deal between cement companies in Germany and U.K., buyout offers for EMI and Reuters.
Elena
04 May, 2007
New York City
European stock markets posted solid gains on Friday, hitting fresh six-year highs on the back of deal speculation in the media and mining sectors. BHP Billiton, rose 4.6% and Rio Tinto climbed 4.7% amid reports that private-equity investors could buy BHP. Among media stocks, Reuters surged 25% after the company said it received a takeover approach, possibly from Thomson Corp. Music-publishing group EMI jumped 8.2%. The FTSE 100 rose 1%, the French CAC 40 rose 1.1%, the German DAX 30 added 0.5%.
Elena
04 May, 2007
New York City
Options-trading firm Interactive Brokers Group gained 9% after raising $1.2 billion in its stock market debut Friday as the richest IPO in 2007. Interactive Brokers Group priced 40 million shares at $30.01 each, coming in at the high end of the expected range of $27 to $31 a share. Spanish-French tobacco company Altadis said that it received a preliminary private equity takeover approach from CVC and PAI Partners, valuing Altadis at around 12.8 billion euros ($17.4 billion).
Elena
04 May, 2007
New York City
Merger-and-acquisition news was the main market driver on Friday. Reuters surged 25% after it said it had received a preliminary takeover approach from financial data provider Thomson Corp. In other deal news, Yahoo jumped 15% amid reports that Microsoft is interested in buying the Internet search engine in a deal that could be worth $50 billion.
Elena
04 May, 2007
New York City
Corporate takeover news and in-line-with-estimates unemployment rate boosted U.S. stocks at opening. Yahoo jumped 15% in early trading amid reports that Microsoft is interested in buying the Internet search engine in a deal that could be worth as much as $50 billion. At the same time, Dow member Microsoft lost 1.7%. In other deal news, Reuters surged 25% after it said it had received a preliminary takeover approach from financial data provider Thomson Corp.
Ivaylo
04 May, 2007
New York City
Intense bidding in the media sector saw shares in London surge above the 6-year highs hit on Thursday after Reuters confirmed it had received an approach from a rival thought to be Thomson of Canada, a financial information provider based in Toronto. Miners also advanced as strong metal prices boosted the sector. The FTSE 100 gained 59.5 points or 0.9% to 6,597.3 by mid-day.
