Stocks erased their August gains Tuesday as the dollar rose while oil prices fell as traders leaned toward less risky assets with August drawing to a close.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.26%. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.18%.
Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (USA) (NYSE:POT) and United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) fought off Tuesday’s downbeat performance by the broader market to rank as three of the day’s best performers.
Mondelez International Inc (MDLZ)
Shares of Mondelez International Inc — the maker of Oreo cookies among other famous snack brands — surged 4% on heavy volume after the company said it is dropping its bid to acquire Hershey Co (NYSE:HSY).
MDLZ announced that it is terminating its effort to acquire Hershey after the close of U.S. markets Monday, news that sent shares of Pennsylvania-based Hershey tumbling today by 10.8% on volume that was more than six times the daily average.
The MDLZ effort to acquire Hershey faced staunch opposition from the Hershey Trust, which owns 34% of the company’s shares and controls a significant majority of the voting rights. The crumbled merger with Mondelez leaves some market observers believing Hershey simply has no interest in being acquired.
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (USA) (POT)
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, the maker of its namesake crop nutrients, soared 10.8% following reports the company is in talks to merge with rival Agrium Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AGU).
Not only did the news send shares of AGU higher by 7%, but it sparked a rally throughout the fertilizer group, sending nearly all of the group’s U.S.-listed constituents sharply higher Tuesday.
POT is the world’s biggest crop nutrient producer as measured by capacity. A marriage between POT and Agrium could be worth up to $25 billion.
The company has been the center of deal-making in the past. Several years ago, Canadian regulators rejected a foreign company’s efforts to acquire Potash, while the company saw a similar result in its effort to acquire a German rival last year.
POT and Agrium are both Canadian companies, which could ease regulatory concerns. However, U.S. regulators could examine the deal, as Agrium is a dominant retailer to U.S. farmers.
United Continental Holdings Inc (UAL)
Shares of United Continental Holdings Inc rose 8.6% on more than double the average daily volume after the company announced it hired American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) President Scott Kirby away from that company to fill the same role at Chicago-based UAL.
Kirby is expected to step into the role at UAL immediately.
Analysts cheered the move, with Raymond James boosting its rating on UAL to “outperform” from “market perform” with a $65 price target.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
