Corporate consolidations lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow gaining 69 points to 11,878. Nasdaq soared 38 points to 2676.
On the upside
Cigna will pay a premium of approximately $3.8 billion in cash to acquire HealthSpring (NYSE: HS).
Adolor (Nasdaq: ADLR) will be acquired by Cubist Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CBST) for approximately $190 million in cash.
Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) will pay a premium of approximately $1.5 billion to acquire RightNow Technologies (Nasdaq: RNOW).
On the downside
AT&T (NYSE: T) will seek a dismissal of Sprint's (NYSE: S) antitrust suit to prevent AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile USA.
Shares of MGIC Investment (NYSE: MTG) and Radian Group (NYSE: RDN) after the Arizona Department of Insurance seized PMI Group's (NYSE: PMI) PMI Mortgage Insurance division.
Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) disappointed with lower third quarter earnings and trimmed its full year earnings and revenue guidance.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 7 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 7 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks soared 10 points to 723.