M&A Activity Drives Stocks Up On Wall Street
March 01, 2010 4:32 PM
Sudden M&A activities moved U.S. stocks higher on Monday morning, helped along by stronger-than-expected consumer spending and signs that a Greek bail-out may be imminent.
American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) rose 9.3% to $27.07 after Prudential (NYSE: PRU) agreed to buy its Asian operations for $35.5 billion.
Millipore (NYSE: MIL) increased 10.8% to $104.64 after reports that Merck KGaA (PINK: MKGAY) agreed to buy its U.S. laboratory supplies for $7.2 billion. Merck was up 2.2% to 59.06 euros.
OSI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OSIP) jumped 50.1% to $55.55 after Astellas Pharma (PINK: ALPMF) announced a $3.5 billion hostile takeover.
RiskMetrics Group (NYSE: RISK) was up 13.7% to $21.19, after it was acquired by MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MXB) for $1.6 billion.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) rose 1.3% to $76.16 on the first trading day after the weekend’s earthquake in Chile.
