Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Continue Cautious Rally; Jefferies Acquired by Leucadia

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.

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.

Titanium Metals Corporation

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

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

was up as well, rallying 11.14 percent to $72.25 after the company announced positive data in its Hepatitis C trials.

Clovis Oncology

plummeted 33.69 percent to $14.25 after the company released negative results from its pancreatic cancer study Sunday evening. Molycorp

was also down, falling 10 percent to $6.75 following the announcement of an SEC probe into the company. Shares of JC Penney

continued their fall Monday, tumbling 6.01 percent to $19.40 following a poor earnings release last week and a cut at S&P.

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.

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.

There were no major US economic releases Monday.