Investors welcomed news that the recession officially ended in June 2009 by lifting the markets to a sharply higher close with the Dow surging 145 points to 10,753. Nasdaq jumped 40 points to 2355.
On the upside
Rumors circulated last week that Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) may acquire Local.com (Nasdaq: LOCM).
Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) remodeled some stores to occupy a smaller space to reduce costs.
McMoRan Exploration (NYSE: MMR) will pay approximately $818 million in cash and stock to acquire Plains Exploration & Production's (NYSE: PXP) shallow water shelf assets.
On the downside
Gammon Gold (NYSE: GRS) announced that first phase drilling its Ocampo mine revealed an initial 127,750 gold equivalent ounces in Proven and Probable Reserves.
General Atlantic paid approximately $163 million to acquire a 19% stake in SouFun Holdings (NYSE: SFUN).
Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Wilde lowered his 2011 earnings outlook for Rock-Tenn (NYSE: RKT) citing price concessions among packaging material producers.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 4 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks leaped 18 points to 669.
