TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Wednesday

Stocks added to Friday’s impressive gains, boosted by deals, in light-trading ahead of the Christmas holiday. The markets are closed tomorrow, and the earnings calendar is very light for the rest of this week, with no U.S. companies scheduled to report on Wednesday.

Wyeth
(
WYE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is suing Teva Pharmaceutical
(
TEVA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
in a patent dispute over the generic heartburn drug Protonix (read more).

Merrill Lynch
(
MER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
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
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, is acquiring most of Merrill Lynch’s commercial finance business (read more).

Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
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
(
TGT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
to 9.97% (read more).

United Rentals
(
URI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
terminated its merger deal with Cerberus and requested a $100 million termination fee (read more).