Stocks Continue to Rise During Festive Season

Stocks added to Friday’s impressive gains, boosted by deals, in light-trading ahead of the Christmas holiday.

Merrill Lynch
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raised $6.2 billion through a private placement of newly issued common stock to S Holdings and Davis Selected Advisors (read more).

In related news, GE Capital, a unit of General Electric
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, is acquiring most of Merrill Lynch’s commercial finance business (read more).

Alcoa
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agreed to sell its packaging and consumer businesses to the Rank Group Ltd. of New Zealand for $2.7 billion (read more).

Pershing Square Capital Management increased its stake in Target
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to 9.97% (read more).

United Rentals
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terminated its merger deal with Cerberus and requested a $100 million termination fee (read more).

U.S. markets will be closed on Tuesday.

Market Snapshot

Dow

98.68 13549.33

NASDAQ

21.51 2713.50

S&P 500

11.99 1496.45

Strongest/Weakest Industry Groups

Strongest Industries

% Change

Weakest Industries

% Change
Non-metallic Mineral Mining
+5.29%
Toy & Hobby Stores
-1.93%
REIT – Healthcare Facilities
+4.55%
Computer Based Systems
-1.61%
REIT – Residential
+4.15%
Silver
-1.28%

Economic
News

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