Acquisition News Boost Investor Sentiment

December 21, 2009 at 08:50 AM EST

Investors were in the buying mood as mergers and acquisitions took the spot light. Meanwhile, oil prices rose above $73 ahead of an OPEC meeting. The Dow surge 107 points to 19,436 while Nasdaq leaped 22 points to 2234.

On the upside

U.S.-based healthcare group Chattem (Nasdaq: CHTT) was the target of a $1.9 billion offer by French drugmaker Sanofi Aventis.

Alcoa (NYSE: AA) announced a $900 million investment into a $10.8 billion joint venture with Saudi Arabian mining company, Ma'aden to develop an aluminum industrial complex in Saudi Arabia.

CTC Media (Nasdaq: CTCM) announced plans to launch Russian-language programming on the Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH).
Treehouse Foods (NYSE: THS) offered $660 million in stock and debt to buy pre-packaged food maker Sturm Foods.

On the downside

GigaMedia (Nasdaq: GIGM) posted quarterly results that missed estimates. The company provides online gaming in the Asian markets.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (Nasdaq: TEVA) announced a licensing deal and an equity deal into OncoGenex (Nasdaq: OGXI).

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 2 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks gained 5 points to 616.