The stock market had a week of mixed results that ended on a high note as the S&P 500 surged 0.6% Friday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the day 0.4% higher.
The likes of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL), Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON) and Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) are stocks that were making the biggest headlines this weekend.
Here’s what’s happening with these stocks:
Monsanto Company (MON)
Monsanto shares are surging higher in Monday’s premarket trade thanks to a bid by German drugmaker Bayer (BAYRY) for $62 billion in cash.
While Bayer is known for its pharmaceutical business, it also has extensive reach in agriculture and crop science. So the combination would create the largest agricultural supplier in world.
Bayer’s bid likely will mean the end of the reported interest from German chemical firm BASF (BASFY). It also marks yet another M&A move in the agribusiness space. Other deals recently include a merger between Dow Chemical (DOW) and DuPont (DD), as well as ChemChina’s $43 billion purchase of Syngenta AG (ADR) (SYT).
Not everyone is in favor of the deal, with one major shareholder accusing Bayer CEO Werner Baumann of “arrogant empire-building.”
Still, Wall Street is happy with the deal, as MON stock is being bid up by 8% in Monday morning trading.
Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA)
Tesla continues its to cement itself as one of the preeminent electric car makers in the world with an Asian expansion plan.
The automotive company is fueling rumors of building a factory in China, with CTO JB Straubel stating that Tesla will erect a factory overseas if it reaches “critical mass.”
In the past, Elon Musk has also discussed the rumor, mentioning that we could be less than three years away from seeing construction begin for a China Tesla factory.
TSLA shares are up marginally on the news.
Alphabet Inc (GOOG, GOOGL)
Google announced an update over the weekend that will improve mobile search.
The tech giant is making the function more aesthetically pleasing as the website’s mobile search has adopted a new format known as “Rich Cards.” With this function, you can scroll through the search results as if they make up a deck of cards that you can examine.
Google also announced over the weekend that the company is improving Android and Chrome OS by combining the best features of the two.
As of this writing, Karl Utermohlen did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
