Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Forest Labs To Acquire Furiex For $1.1B In Cash

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.56 percent to 16,452.82 while the NASDAQ surged 0.34 percent to 4,089.31. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.35 percent to 1,869.99.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Healthcare shares gained around 1.19 percent in the US market on Monday. Top gainers in the sector included Furiex Pharmaceuticals FURX, AstraZeneca PLC AZN, and Galena Biopharma GALE. In trading on Monday, basic materials shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.65 percent.

Top decliners in the sector included Newmont Mining NEM, off 5.7 percent, and Cliffs Natural Resources CLF, down 4.1 percent.

Top Headline
Forest Laboratories FRX announced its plans to buy Furiex Pharmaceuticals FURX for up to $1.46 billion. Forest will pay around $95 per share, or around $1.1 billion in cash. Forest Labs will also pay up to $30 per share, or around $360 million in a contingent value right. The deal is projected to close in the second or third quarter of 2014.

Equities Trading UP
Susser Holdings SUSS shares shot up 38.77 percent to $79.14 after Energy Transfer Partners LP ETP announced its plans to acquire Susser Holdings in a deal valued at around $1.8 billion.

Shares of Furiex Pharmaceuticals FURX got a boost, shooting up 28.17 percent to $102.72 after Forest Labs FRX announced its plans to buy Furiex Pharma for up to $1.46 billion.

AstraZeneca PLC AZN shares were also up, gaining 15.06 percent to $79.00 following the rejection of Pfizer's PFE $76.62 per share bid.

Equities Trading DOWN
Shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group EDU were 11.39 percent to $23.02 after the company reported FQ3 results. New Oriental's quarterly net income surged 50.2% y/y to US$42.1 million versus US$28.0 million.

Sohu.com SOHU shares tumbled 6.66 percent to $54.14 after the company reported a Q1 adjusted loss of $1.26 per share on revenue of $365.0 million.

Newmont Mining NEM was down, falling 5.67 percent to $24.95 after the company terminated its merger talks with Barrick Gold ABX.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.54 percent to $101.14, while gold traded up 0.15 percent to $1,302.70.

Silver traded down 0.29 percent Monday to $19.66, while copper fell 0.15 percent to $3.09.

Eurozone
European shares were mostly higher today.

The Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.43 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 0.04 percent.

Meanwhile, the German DAX surged 0.22 percent and the French CAC 40 rose 0.27 percent while U.K. shares gained 0.09 percent.

Economics
The pending home sales index increased 3.4% to a reading of 97.4 in March from 94.2 in February, the National Association of Realtors said. However, economists were expecting a 1% gain.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills.