US stocks end mostly higher, lifted by merger activity
Wall Street stocks largely logged gains by the end of Monday, with merger and acquisition buzz helping to boost sentiment. The Dow Jones was flat at 37,306, while the S&P 500 Index rose 0.5 percent to 4,740. The Nasdaq jumped 0.6 percent to 14,904. "The market is up, but it's not broadly based, and I think more so due to the M&A that we got this morning," said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities. A major development was a deal by Nippon Steel to buy US Steel Corp for US$14.1 billion. The leading Japanese steelmaker will acquire the company in an all-cash deal at US$55 per share, a 40 percent premium above its closing price on Friday. US Steel shares closed 26.1 percent higher. "The year-end rally remains in place," Cardillo said, adding that even as investors should expect a pull-back, this is not likely to be steep. Another area of support was from "relative strength in mega cap stocks," noted Briefing.com, referring to companies with large market capitalisations. Facebook parent Meta Platforms ended the day 2.9 percent up, while Google parent Alphabet was 2.5 percent higher.  Meanwhile, there was a "surge in oil prices due to geopolitical angst related to the understanding that several shipping companies have suspended travel through the Red Sea, including BP," Briefing.com added in a note. This came on the back of attacks on vessels by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels. (AFP)