Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Markets Continue to Rise as Barnes & Noble Looks for a Bottom

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.01 percent to 15,146.65 while the NASDAQ gained 1.08 percent to 3,437.30. The S&P also rose, surging 1.21 percent to 1,632.56.

Top Headline
Gannett GCI announced its plans to acquire Belo BLC in a deal valued at $2.2 billion. Gannett will pay $1.5 billion in cash, or $13.75 per share to buy Belo, and assume $715 million in existing debt. The deal price represents a 28.1% premium over Belo's closing stock price on Wednesday. The transaction is likely to close by the end of 2013.

Equities Trading UP
Gannett GCI shot up 31.84 percent to $26.17 after the company announced its plans to acquire Belo BLC for $1.5 billion in cash. Shares of Sinclair Boadcast Group SBGI were up as well, gaining 12.99 percent to $27.22 following the news of the Belo acquisition. Safeway SWY traded down throughout Thursday's session, but remained up 8.19 percent to $25.00 after the company announced its plans to sell its Canadian operations to Sobeys for $5.7 billion.

Equities Trading DOWN
Barnes & Noble BKS traded down 8.36 percent to $19.52 after traders began to speculate that the deal for the Nook unit would not go through. Shares of Polypore International PPO were down 4.13 percent to $42.50 after Topeka Capital downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold. Elan Corporation ELN shares tumbled 2.85 percent to $12.74 after Royalty Pharma reported that its offer for Elan may lapse.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.73 percent to $96.58, while gold traded down 1.05 percent to $1,377.50. Silver traded down 0.60 percent Thursday to $21.67, while copper fell 1.09 percent to $3.19.

Euro zone
European shares were mixed today. Spanish 10-year government bond yields rose 6 basis points to 4.69 percent. Italian 10-year government bond yields rose 6 basis points to 4.44 percent. The Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.64 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB Index gained 0.58 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.59 percent and the French CAC 40 gained 0.11 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.08 percent.

Economics
US jobless claims dropped 12,000 to 334,000 in the week ended June 8, versus 346,000 in the earlier week. However, economists were projecting jobless claims figure of 350,000. US import prices declined 0.6% in May. However, economists were expecting a 0.2% fall. April's import price index was revised to a drop of 0.7%, versus a previous estimate of a 0.5% fall. Export prices declined 0.5% in May, versus a 0.7% drop in April. US retail sales climbed 0.6% in May, versus a prior reading of 0.10%. However, economists were expecting retail sales to rise 0.5%. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index declined to -31.30 in the week ended Jun 9, versus a prior reading of -29.70. US business inventories rose 0.30% to $1.66 trillion in April. Economists were projecting a 0.3% rise. Natural-gas supplies increased 95 billion cubic feet for the week ended June 7, the US Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a rise of 94 billion cubic feet to 98 billion cubic feet. Data on money supply will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.