Alibaba's eagerly anticipated IPO boosted the markets to a sharply higher open with the Dow climbing 74 points to 17,340. Nasdaq gained 14 points to 4,607.
On the upside
SAP will a premium of approximately $7.3 billion in cash to acquire Concur Technologies (Nasdaq: CNQR).
Reports circulated that Siemens was preparing to make an offer for Dresser-Rand Group (NYSE: DRC).
Pro-Dex (Nasdaq: PDEX) swung to a profit for the fourth quarter as revenue rose.
On the downside
Shares of Net Element (Nasdaq: NETE) extended its losses.
Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) founder Larry Ellison will relinquish the chief executive officer role to Safra Catz and Mark Hurd. The software firm also reported slightly lower first quarter earnings that missed expectations.
Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) reported higher second quarter earnings and revenue but cash flow fell.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 rose 7 points to 2019. Bitcoin dropped $27 to $395.
Markets soar as Alibaba makes debut
September 19, 2014 at 10:43 AM EDT