Oil slick:
- Stocks sort of took a breather on Monday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq not even moving a point. Oil did get itself above $108 a barrel, which certainly bears closer watching, but the market also had risen almost 6% in about three weeks. A lack of news of either extreme, and the days after the end-of-quarter “window dressing” also certainly had a hand in a sideways trade. Silver, however, pushed to another 31-or-so-year high. Bonds did post a modest gain, about the only sign that the three-week rally in stocks could even be anything close to ending.
- After the closing bell, some real news: Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) will buy National Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM) for $25 a share in an all-cash deal worth about $6.5 billion. The combined company is expected to have market share of about 17%-18%. NSM shot 75% higher in after-hours trading.
- On Tuesday, investors will get the ISM Non-Manufacturing Survey for March as well as the Fed minutes from its March 15 meeting.
OUT THERE SOMEWHERE:
- Transocean (NYSE:RIG) touts safety record without irony.
- Why tablet PCs may make us less rude.
- Some Japanese politicians dropping the standard civility.
- Retiring in the liquidity trap.
- Goldman gets a little more bearish on 2011.
- Got Chinese milk? You may want to throw it out.
- Peak Oil Watch: Here come the Nigerian elections.
- Investors still largely black-balling muni bonds.
- The pharmaceuticals market is broken.
- Richard Florida on the state population growth/productivity growth connection. (There isn’t one).
