Merger and acquisition news lifted the markets to a sharply higher open with the Dow soaring 143 points to 15,895. Nasdaq climbed 33 points to 4034.
On the upside
Avago Technologies (Nasdaq: AVGO) will pay a premium of approximately $6.6 billion in cash to acquire LSI (Nasdaq: LSI).
Solta Medical (Nasdaq: SLTM) will be acquired by Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) for a premium of approximately $236 million in cash.
AerCap Holdings (NYSE: AER) will buy AIG's (NYSE: AIG) International Lease Finance aircraft leasing business in a cash and stock deal valued at approximately $5.4 billion.
On the downside
USEC (NYSE: USU) will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the first quarter of 2014.
Investors continued to lock in profits on CytRx (Nasdaq: CYTR).
Profit taking weighed down shares of T-Mobile (NYSE: TMUS).
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 5 to 2 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 gained 13 points to 1788. Bitcoin fell $60.00 or 6.67% to $840.00.
