Major M&A Activity Jump Starts The Week

  • March 19, 2007
  • Darren Wong

The U.S. stock markets rallied
throughout the day as significant merger-and-acquisition news has
generated strong positive sentiment.  The M&A activity
covered several sectors ranging from stock exchanges to utilities. 

Crude futures fell 0.7% to
$56.72 per barrel. 
Gold futures are also trading up through the morning.  Gold
futures close fractionally higher to $654.30 an ounce.

Around Europe, the U.K.’s
FTSE 100 index rose 0.96% to 6,189.40, while France’s CAC 40 index
climbed 1.43% to 5,458.95 and Germany’s DAX index surged up 1.39%
to 6,671.41.



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Stocks in
Motion

IntercontinentalExchange
(
ICE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Delivers
Merger Agreement To CBOT
(
BOT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Board (full
story).  ICE shares gained 1.2%, while BOT shares rose 3.5%.

Quanta Services
(
PWR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) To Buy
InfraSource
(
IFS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) In $1.26 Bln All-stock Deal (full
story).  PWR shares finished flat, while IFS shares soared by 14%.

ServiceMaster
(
SVM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) To Be Acquired By
Investment Group For About $5.5 Bln (full
story).  SVM shares rallied up 12%.

EGL
(
EAGL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) To Be Taken Private By
CEO-led Group For $38 Per Share (full
story).  EAGL shares rose 6.4%.

Hercules Offshore
(
HERO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) To Purchase
Todco
(
THE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) In $2.3 Bln Stock And Cash Deal (full
story).  HERO shares lost 5%, while THE shares jumped 20%.

Hewlett-Packard
(
HPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) To Buy Back
Additional $8 Bln. Shares (full
story).  HPQ shares rose by 0.75%.

For more stories as they happen, go to our
Breaking News section.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +115.76 12,226.17

NASDAQ

 +21.75 2,394.41

S&P 500

 +15.11 1,402.06

 

 NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

 2,773,678,000 1,652,132,000

Advances

 2397 2001

Declines

 842 1041

Up Volume

 2144 976

Down Volume

 441 600

New Highs

 112 97

New Lows

 24 72



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors
CBOE Oil Index (DXE) GSTI Semiconductor Index (GSM)
Amex Airline Index (XAL) GSTI Multimedia Networking Index (GIP)
Deutsche Bank Energy Index (DXE) S&P Retail Index (RLX)


Economic
News

No economic reports released
today.

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com