Merger and acquisition activity lifted the markets to a modestly higher open with the Dow rising 40 points to 10,253. Nasdaq added 2 points to 2182.
On the upside
A bidding war for 3Par (NYSE: PAR) began as Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) topped Dell's (Nasdaq: DELL) $1.13 billion offer with a bid of $1.5 billion for the data storage provider.
Two experimental treatments from AVI BioPharma (Nasdaq: AVII) protected monkeys against the Ebola and Marburg viruses.
Shipment of Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) Mac surged 35% in June.
On the downside
Shares of Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: JAZZ) continued falling after a Food and Drug Administration Advisory panel rejected the company's fibromyalgia treatment JZP-6 on Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration issued a refusal to file letter to EpiCept (Nasdaq: EPCT) for its acute myeloid leukemia treatment Ceplene's New Drug Application.
Deutsche Bank analyst Alan Hellawell downgraded Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced declinrs by a margin of 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 4 points to 615.
