Higher Open As Investors Monitor Europe

The markets opened higher with the Dow gaining 85 points to 11,954 as investors monitored the European debt crisis. Nasdaq climbed 39 point to 2580.

On the upside

United Rentals (NYSE: URI) will pay approximately $1.9 billion in cash and stock to acquire rival RSC Holdings (NYSE: RRR).


Tilman Fertitta, owner of Landry's Group, will pay approximately $116.6 million in cash to acquire Morton's Restaurant Group (NYSE: MRT).

Fourth quarter earnings fell for Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE) but the results beat analyst expectations and revenue rose.

On the downside


Pharmasset's (Nasdaq: VRUS) plan to amend the drug trial of its hepatitis C treatment PSI-938 weighed down shares of rival hepatitis C treatment developer Inhibitex (Nasdaq: INHX).


Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) reported sharply lower third quarter earnings and warned that BlackBerry shipments in the fourth quarter will drop prompting downgrades.


Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC) chief operating officer Tom Rutledge announced his resignation effective at the end of the month.


In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks soared 13 points to 729.

Data & News supplied by www.cloudquote.io
Stock quotes supplied by Barchart
Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes.
By accessing this page, you agree to the following
Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.