Nasdaq Nears 15-Year Peak as Techs Power the Latest Surge

Nichole Harper
02 Mar, 2015
New York City

Market indexes advanced after deals dominated headlines. HP agreed to acquire Aruba Networks for $2.7 billion and Boston Scientific offered to pay $1.6 billion to buy urology business from Endo International. Tech heavy Nasdaq is set to retest the peak it reached fifteen years ago.

[R]2:05 PM New York – Market indexes advanced after deals dominated headlines. HP agreed to acquire Aruba Networks for $2.7 billion and Boston Scientific offered to pay $1.6 billion to buy urology business from Endo International. Tech heavy Nasdaq is set to retest the peak it reached fifteen years ago.[/R]

Stocks in New York traded higher and tech heavy Nasdaq raced to reach 5,000, the high not seen in fifteen years.

The Nasdaq Composite after fifteen years has recovered from the sharp plunge that wiped out more than $1 trillion in investments after crossing 5,000 on March 9, 2000.

The index stayed above the loft level only for two days and quickly began to descent and lost more 80% reached a bottom in October 2002 from its peak of 5,048.62 on March 10, 2000.

Personal income in January rose 0.3% and disposable personal income increased 0.4%. Personal consumption expenditure fell 0.2% in the month, the Department of Commerce reported today.

In a separate report the department said construction spending in January dropped 1.1% at annual rate of $971.4 billion from the revised December estimate of $982 billion.

On Wall Street trading, Tollbooth Strategy Index jumped 0.5% or 48.89 to 10,729.41.

S&P 500 index rose 8.11 or 0.4% to 2,112.61 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 32.81 or 0.7% to 4,996.19.

Crude oil fell $1.35 a barrel to $48.46 and gold fell $5.90 to $1,199 an ounce.

U.S. Movers

Boston Scientific Corporation ((BSX)) rose 4 cents to $16.94 after the medical device maker agreed to acquire American Medical Systems urology business from Ireland-based privately held branded and generic pharmaceutical company Endo International Plc for about $1.6 billion.

The transaction is expected to close in the third-quarter of this year.

Hewlett-Packard Company ((HPQ)), the technologies and software company agreed to acquire wireless-networking company Aruba Networks Inc. for $24.67 a share or for about $2.7 billion.

VimpelCom Ltd ((VIP)) dropped 2.5% or 14 cents to $5.34 after the Russia focus wireless telecom company agreed to sell 90% stake in its subsidiary of WIND Telecomunicazioni S.p.A''s Galata unit for €693 million in cash to Abertis Telecom Terrestre SAU.

European Markets

In London trading, FTSE 100 index fell 0.3% or 19.85 to 6,926.81 and in Frankfurt the DAX index slid 0.2% or 21.91 to 11,379.75.

In Paris, CAC 40 index dropped 0.9% or 47.06 to 4,904.42.

British Land Company Plc gained 1.7% to 843 pence after the U.K.-based retail parks and shopping center developer today acquired Surrey Quays Leisure Park in Canada Water for £135 million from clients of Aviva Investors.

RWE AG slipped 1.2% to €24.68 after the Germany-based electricity and gas provider completed the sale of its unit RWE Dea AG for about €5 billion or $5.61 billion to an energy-investment fund tycoon Mikhail Fridman.

Asian Markets

Stocks in Tokyo largely reacted to domestic corporate and earnings news.

Market indexes in Japan closed higher and over the weekend China lowered its reference rate and India proposed to accelerate infrastructure spending in the next fiscal year.

Mitsui OSK signed an agreement with South Korea based Samsung Heavy Industries to build four world’s largest container ships with scheduled delivery in 2017.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 28.94 to 18,826.88 and the broader Topix index rose 1.12 to 1,524.97.

The yen traded closed at 119.87 against one dollar.

Stocks in Mumbai closed higher and extended gains set in the volatile session on Saturday after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley released budget for the next fiscal year.

Jaitley took gradualist approach in the first full-year budget of the newly elected government rather than a big-bang approach that most investors and economists had anticipated.

Though the central government’s budget was hard to criticize, offered to lower corporate tax rate to 25% from the current 30% in the next five years, share more revenues with states and proposed number of social security and insurance programs for the poor.
Finance Minister estimated economic growth to accelerate in the next fiscal year between 8% and 8.5% but budget deficit to widen to 3.6% and increase infrastructure spending by 11%.

Indian rupee rose 3 paisa to 61.86 against one dollar.

The Sensex Index rose 97.64 or 0.3% to close at 29,459.14. The CNX Nifty added 54.90 or 0.6% to 8,956.75.

Ashok Leyland Limited climbed 4.5% to ₹72.90 after the commercial vehicles maker said total sales in February soared 36% to 10,762 units compared to 7,915 units in the same quarter last year.

The company reported medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales surged 48% to 8,230 units and light commercial vehicles increased 8% to 2,532 units compared to a same period last year.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited jumped 2.5% to ₹3,707.95 after the automaker said total sales in February rose 8.7% to 118,551 units compared to 109,104 in the same period a year ago.

Total domestic sales in the company advanced 8.2% to 107,892 and exports climbed 14% to 10,659 units in the same period last year.

Olacabs, the smart phone app for personal transportation agreed to acquire cab TaxiForSure for about $200 million in cash and stock.

The company has 100,000 service providers registered on its app in 47 cities. TaxiForSure recently completed $6 million funding from its existing based U.S. venture capital funds.

Olacabs received $210 million from a group of investors led by Japan-based Softbank in October.