LONDON (ShareCast) - -Harman Intl. shoots up 11%
-Hologic bids $3.7bn in cash for Gen Probe
-Chicago NAPM comes in weaker than expected

Dow Jones: -0.04%
Nasdaq Comp: -0.55%
S&P 500: -0.35%

The major US equity benchmarks are now moving a bit further down than at the start, and are lower by 0.3% on average. That as selling pressure in the European equity space carries over the Atlantic Ocean and following ‘mixed’ economic numbers out today.

M&A activity dominates the headlines

Impacting on the market are the M&A headlines. More specifically, Energy Transfer is to acquire Sunoco for $5.3bn, while Microsoft has bought an approximately 18% stake in Barnes&Noble for $300m, sending shares of the latter up by 68%.

Hologic had bid $3.7bn in cash for test market Gen Probe.
BMO has upgraded Chesapeake Energy to buy, with a $25 price target.

Humana and Lyondell-Basell are off after the release of their latest quarterly results.

Harman Intl. Industries is up 11% after reporting strong demand for its products from the luxury car sector.

Better than expected economic data

Personal income rose by four tenths of a percentage point month-on-month in March (Consensus: 0.4%), while spending did so by 0.3% (Consensus: 0.4%). Data for both of the prior months has been revised upwards.

The Chicago NAPM regional manufacturing sector survey has fallen to 56.2 points, from last month´s level of 62.2, led by falls in production and new orders components. The consensus estimate was for a reading of 61.0.

Energy futures trade down

Front month West Texas crude futures are off by 0.76% at 104.13 dollars in NYMEX trading.

10 year US Treasuries are now falling by 5/32 dollars, with yields at 1.92%.

S&P 500 - Risers
Sunoco Inc. (SUN) $49.20 +20.26%
Harman International Industries Inc. (HAR) $51.50 +8.97%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $38.96 +2.70%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $39.41 +2.46%
Federated Investors Inc. (FII) $22.19 +2.40%
EQT Corp. (EQT) $48.86 +2.15%
Cerner Corp. (CERN) $78.80 +1.66%
LSI Logic Corp. (LSI) $8.02 +1.65%
McKesson Corp. (MCK) $92.35 +1.43%
Medtronic Inc. (MDT) $38.17 +1.27%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Humana Inc. (HUM) $82.50 -6.06%
Monster Worldwide Inc. (MWW) $8.69 -4.19%
NYSE Euronext Inc. (NYX) $25.97 -4.06%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $80.85 -3.45%
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT) $10.99 -2.92%
Supervalu Inc. (SVU) $5.97 -2.80%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $56.44 -2.54%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $132.00 -2.25%
Ford Motor Co. (F) $11.34 -2.24%
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT) $58.85 -2.23%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $39.41 +2.46%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $64.54 +0.83%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $65.36 +0.80%
Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) $39.68 +0.71%
AT&T Inc. (T) $32.74 +0.21%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $86.23 +0.18%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $207.11 +0.15%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $106.33 +0.13%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $40.28 +0.12%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $32.01 +0.09%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $8.13 -1.52%
General Electric Co. (GE) $19.52 -1.29%
Boeing Co. (BA) $76.37 -1.17%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $63.83 -0.95%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $103.58 -0.94%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $43.08 -0.61%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $43.14 -0.48%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $19.89 -0.45%
Alcoa Inc. (AA) $9.71 -0.41%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $51.75 -0.38%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Warner Chilcott Plc (WCRX) $22.51 +19.80%
Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM) $14.28 +1.77%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $30.10 +1.76%
Cerner Corp. (CERN) $78.80 +1.66%
Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) $134.44 +0.96%
CH Robinson Worldwide Inc (CHRW) $59.58 +0.95%
Expedia Inc. (EXPE) $40.68 +0.92%
Logitech International S.A. (LOGI) $10.22 +0.79%
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $41.55 +0.78%
Infosys Technologies Ltd. (INFY) $47.39 +0.70%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Hologic Inc. (HOLX) $19.24 -9.37%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $132.00 -2.25%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $590.45 -2.08%
Staples Inc. (SPLS) $15.46 -1.90%
FLIR Systems Inc. (FLIR) $22.49 -1.66%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $132.43 -1.50%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $38.08 -1.40%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $37.08 -1.32%
PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) $43.17 -1.28%
Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) $53.65 -1.25%

AB

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