News That Moved Monday's Market

U.S. Markets

Dow +3.01 (+0.02%)
Nasdaq -6.15 (-0.26%)
S&P 500 +2.14 (+0.16%)

News That Moved the Market

Market Fails to Rally On Wamu Cash Injection. Markets jumped after the Wall Street Journal ran a story spurring the rumor that Washington Mutual (WM, +28.9%) is close to getting a $5 billion investment from a group of investors led by the private equity firm TPG. According to the sources, the deal could be announced at any time, even later today. The companies involved declined commenting on the report, but investors liked that a private equity firm would be willing to invest in the savings and loans giant despite the challenging environment. Later in the day, investors decided to take profits off the table, pushing major indices back to flat levels. We are getting close to the February highs, and the next couple days of trading will tell us if this market ready to rally, or is simply at the top of a trading range and getting ready to test new lows.

Novartis Goes Shopping. Novartis (NVS, -4.1%) will acquire a significant stake in Nestle's Alcon (ACL, +1.5%) unit. Novartis will pay $11 billion now for a 25% stake, then have the sole rights to purchase an additional 52% of the unit for $28 billion between January 2010 to July 2011.

Alcoa's Profits Drop. Alcoa (AA, -4.0% day; -0.4% A.H.) kicked off earnings season, reporting a 52% decrease in profits, blaming higher energy costs, the falling U.S. dollar and lower metal prices. Expect the market to open a little lower off the disappointing report.

Quick Tics: Yahoo (YHOO, -2.3%) insisted today that Microsoft's (MSFT, +0.0%) takeover price must increased before the merger goes through…Crude jumped 2.7% to $109.09...AMD (AMD, +1.6% day; -2.1% A.H.) cuts its sales outlook and will lay off 10% of its workforce.

Tomorrow

Notable Earnings (Full List Here):
Sealy Corp. (ZZ) After Close

Economic Events:
10:00 AM: Pending Home Sales Index
2:00 PM: FOMC Minutes