Fast Money Recap - A Hotbed of M&A Activity (4/21/09)

Recap of CNBC's Fast Money, Tuesday April 21.

A Hotbed of M&A Activity: QLogic (QLGC), Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA), Nucor (NUE), Watson Pharmaceuticals (WPI), Schnitzer (SCHN)

Jon Najarian foresees a hotbed of M&A Activity by the end of the year, and the signs are already showing with the news of the Oracle-Sun Microsystems merger. He thinks Teva might be in the market to buy a company, and has heard rumors it might be Watson Pharmaceuticals, which is up. News that Nucor might buy Schnitzer caused the latter stock to trade higher; ”Anybody can start a rumor on a stock” says Najarian, “It’s a question of whether or not the institutions are believing it. And to the extent they are, I want to get in there too.”

Banks on the Rebound: Bank of America (BAC), USB (USB), Morgan Stanley (MS), Capital One Financial (COF)

Banks did an about face from a lackluster performance on Monday and led the market back up on Tuesday. Tim Seymour thinks that the banks react according to the statements of Tim Geithner, which though positive on Tuesday, may be a tad too optimistic. But no one can deny USB's performance was impressive- up 20% in heavy trading even after mediocre earnings. Karen Finerman says she is still leery of banks and thinks the government might have created an unfortunate situation with stress tests that banks that don't pass could bring down the rest of the financials. Capital One Financial did worse than expected and while Guy Adami sees pressure from shorts in the near-term, he thinks it could be a long-term buy. Karen Finerman would pay attention to delinquencies.

Caterpillar (CAT), United Technologies (UTX), Texas Instruments (TXN), IBM (IBM), Honeywell (HON), Intel (INTC)

Caterpillar performed well on Tuesday, but Tim Seymour warns investors earnings were down 20%, and the low expectations buoyed the stock. Guy Adami thinks the trade in United Technologies is finished and may consider buying Honeywell ahead of earnings. Texas Instruments and IBM were up, even after IBM's decline on Monday. Adami says IBM has a good multiple and is a buy. Jeff Macke is not thrilled about TXN and would buy Intel.

What about Yahoo (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT)

Jim Goldman of CNBC commented on Yahoo's conference call in which new CEO Carol Bartz said the company is committed make the user's experience more exciting and to increase spending on advertising when the economy picks up. However, Goldman thinks there isn't much compelling about Yahoo which could rise only on more employee cutbacks and a Microsoft deal. Guy Adami commented that Yahoo managed to beat its earnings only because it "tripped over a bar that was on the freaking ground."

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