Wall Street’s corporate deal makers appeared in rude health at the start of a new week, as a flurry of M&A provided many of Monday’s highlights.
At the same time there’s a generally more buoyant equity market, helped by a mostly positive earnings reporting season and slightly better economic figures.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) had climbed 165 points, 0.9%, to 17,829 while the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) added 1.2% at 2,104 and the Nasdaq (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) had moved 1.4% higher to 5,127.
As last week’s Federal Reserve comments seemingly put the possibility of a December interest rate rise back on the table, there’ll likely be a great deal of scrutiny on upcoming job stats for September as they’re released later this week.
It was corporate wheeling and dealing in the spotlight. Dyax Corp (NASDAQ:DYAX) soared around a third after London listed drug firm Shire tabled a US$5.9bn takeover. Shire, which has vowed to continue pursuing rival Baxalta (NYSE:BXLT), said it was acquiring the heart disease treatment developer for $37.30 in cash per Dyax share.
It was not the only healthcare deal in town, even if it was the largest. Hospital services group MedAssets (NYSE:MDAS) was also up a third, after agreeing to a US$2.7bn takeover offer from private equity group Pamplona Capital.
And Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) is to acquire Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, a privately owned cardiovascular disease focussed biotech, for as much as US$2bn.
The real-blue chip deal of the day comes from Visa (NYSE:V) which is set to consolidate, with the purchase of Visa Europe via a US$23.4bn (€21.2bn) deal. Some €16.5bn is to be paid up-front, of which €11.5bn will be cash, and a further €4.7bn would be due after four years.
Visa also revealed this morning what it said was a ‘strong’ fourth quarter performance. The company had quarterly net income of US$1.5bn, which takes the annual figure to US$6.3bn. It also authorised a US$5bn share buy-back programme, and repeated that it will increase dividend payments.
Charles Scharf, Visa chief executive, said: “We are very excited about unifying Visa into a single global company with unmatched scale, technology and services.”
Elsewhere, there were also a US$2.7bn deal which sees TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS) acquiring ConAgra Foods (NYSE:CAG) to become America’s larger ‘private label’ food company.
And Coty (NYSE:COTY), the personal hygiene group, is buying a Brazilian beauty products business for US$1bn.
Meanwhile, newly split-up HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) gained around 12.5% to US$13.77 on its first trading day since the business technology arm was spun-off. The jettisoned Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) was trading at US$14.72, which is notionally down slightly from its demerged price.
Later, after the closing bell, Walking Dead broadcaster AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) is in the diary to report after Monday’s close, along with insurer Allstate (NYSE:ALL), car rental group Avis Budget (NASDAQ:CAR) and wearable tech firm Fitbit (NYSE:FIT).