Are Merger Mondays Back?

Although it is mostly a slow news morning, as well as a Jewish holiday, there was a flurry of M&A news before the bell:

• Xerox (XRX) is acquiring Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) for $6.4 billion;
• Abbott Labs (ABT) is buying Solvay's pharma business for $6.6 billion;
• American Securities is buying GenTek (GETI) for $38 per share.

The stock market is getting a nice boost this morning, after a big down week last week. I suspect that some of this buying is window dressing related to quarter end on Wednesday. Tech stocks are up strong, led by semis, but all 10 S&P sectors are participating.

Asian markets were down across the board overnight, but Europe was higher after Germany's Chancellor Merkel was reelected. The dollar is a bit lower again for the third day, helping boost commodity prices. Oil is higher near $66.50 and gold is up to $995, struggling to get back over the $1000 mark.

The 10-year yield is lower again, to 3.31%; and the VIX is also down today at 25.30 following a 3 day bounce in this index.

Trading comment: I put some money to work Friday. I added to our RIMM positions, and also added to some of our mutual fund holdings in accounts where I had too much cash.

I need to finish my sentiment roundup, and then I will comment on what the indicators are saying. But for the most part, it looks like investor sentiment remains sufficiently skeptical to allow the stair-step market to continue working.

Disclosure: long RIMM

Comments

[JamesApple:]

I believe Rim would be going out of business by year 2013 or sooner.

At the meantime there are no reasons why investors would not continue to try making money on the highly volatile Rim stocks.

Sep 28 02:05 PM

[Earthizen:]

More like painting the tape before the end of the quarter on a thin trading day.

Sep 28 02:13 PM