On the upside
Affiliated Computer Services (NYSE: ACS) received a $6.4 billion cash and stock offer from Xerox (NYSE: XRX) expanding the copier company's operations into data center management.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) offered about $6.6 billion in cash to buy the drug business from Belgium-based Solvay.
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) announced that it has surpassed 2 billion in application downloads for its iPhone mobile device.
Aspect Medical systems (Nasdaq: ASPM) received an all-stock offer from Covidien (NYSE: COV) to add brain monitoring devices to its stable of medical products.
On the downside
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) bought an 18% stake in Belgium-based Curcell in a flu development vaccine deal.
Shares of Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) continued to fall after last week's disappointing forecast.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 3 to 1 on the NYSE and by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks rose 7 points to 606.