Wall Street Has the Urge to Merge: Monday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | July 29, 2013 4:59 pm

InvestorPlace Market Recap[1]Investors returned from the weekend with eyes focused on a full calendar week’s worth of both economic and earnings news.

The week’s economic reports — which include May’s S&P Case-Shiller home price index (Tuesday), and the U.S. Employment Report for July (Friday) — got started Monday with a 0.4% drop in pending home sales, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The combination of the early news and concerns over future reports brought a wait-and-see mind-set to the markets, with all three major indices heading lower. The Nasdaq led the way down, falling 0.39% to close at 3599.14, while the S&P 500 fell 0.37% to 1685.33, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.24% to 15521.97.

Merger news took center stage[2], as U.S. advertising giants Omnicom Group (OMC[3]) and Paris-based Publicis Group (PUBGY[4]) agreed to merge, creating the world’s largest advertising company with 130,000 employees and a market value of more than $35 billion. Surprisingly, the merger news did little for the stocks; OMC finished ahead fractionally while PUGBY finished down.

In the pharmaceutical space, Perrigo (PRGO[5]) agreed to purchase biotechnology firm Elan (ELN[6]) for $16.50 per share — an 11% premium to ELN’s Friday closing price. Perrigo investors did not like the news, however as PRGO shares fell more than 6% on the day.

Meanwhile, retailer Saks (SKS[7]) agreed to a purchase[8] by Canadian retailer Hudson’s Bay (HBAYF[9]) for $16 per share — a 4.5% premium to its Friday closing price.

Facebook (FB[10]) continued to gain following last week’s blowout earnings report, rising more than 4% to get within 7% of its IPO price.

Caterpillar (CAT[11]) stock bounced back by more than 1%, representing the Dow’s biggest gain, after announcing a new $1 billion share buyback plan just a month after completing another $1 billion stock repurchase plan. CAT will buy back 11 million shares within the next few days from Societe Generale (SCGLY[12]), and expects to complete the entire purchase plan by September.

Finally, fresh off a disappointing earnings[13] report last week, Amazon (AMZN[14]) announced it will look to fill 7,000 jobs[15] in 13 different states for its fulfillment and customer service centers. The news did little for investors, who chopped nearly 2% off the stock by day’s end.

Notable earnings releases for Tuesday include Aflac (AFL[16]), Merck (MRK[17]), Pfizer (PFE[18]) and UBS (UBS[19]).

Three Up

Three Down

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing he does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Endnotes:

  1. [Image]: https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IPMarketRecap.gif
  2. Merger news took center stage: https://investorplace.com/2013/07/merger-monday-another-win-for-healthcare-stocks/
  3. OMC: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=OMC
  4. PUBGY: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=PUBGY
  5. PRGO: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=PRGO
  6. ELN: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=ELN
  7. SKS: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SKS
  8. agreed to a purchase: https://investorplace.com/2013/07/hudsons-bay-to-buy-saks-for-2-4b/
  9. HBAYF: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=HBAYF
  10. FB: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=FB
  11. CAT: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=CAT
  12. SCGLY: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SCGLY
  13. disappointing earnings: https://investorplace.com/2013/07/amazon-bezos-earnings-stock/
  14. AMZN: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=AMZN
  15. fill 7,000 jobs: https://investorplace.com/2013/07/now-hiring-amazon-looking-for-employees-in-13-states/
  16. AFL: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=AFL
  17. MRK: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=MRK
  18. PFE: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=PFE
  19. UBS: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=UBS
  20. CF: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=CF
  21. DDD: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=DDD
  22. SSYS: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SSYS
  23. GAME: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=GAME
  24. SOHU: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SOHU
  25. FRAN: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=FRAN

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/07/mondays-ip-market-recap-omc-ipg-prgo-sks-eln-sks/