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April 22, 2014 at 07:16 AM
(Bloomberg) — U.S. and European stocks rose, led by gains in drugmaker shares as more than $70 billion in global takeover offers bolstered speculation of more deals. Oil fell from a seven-week high and the U.S. dollar weakened.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.1 percent to 1,873.65 at 9:32 a.m. in New York. Health-care stocks in the gauge climbed 0.6 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 1.2 percent. West Texas Intermediate crude slid 1.3 percent on estimates that U.S. supplies rose last week.
The Australian dollar rose against its 16 major peers and the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index snapped a seven-day streak of gains. The yield on Treasury two-year notes set for sale today was near the highest level since 2011.
Novartis AG agreed to buy GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s cancer-drug business for as much as $16 billion while selling most of the company’s vaccines division to Glaxo for $7.1 billion and its animal-health unit to Eli Lilly & Co. for $5.4 billion. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. offered to buy Allergan Inc. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $45.7 billion. Thirty companies in the S&P 500 disclose results today, while a further 121 members report before the end of the week.
“With earnings, companies have been downgrading expectations heading into the season, so it looks like we’ll surprise more to the upside,” David Wartenweiler, chief investment officer at Habib Bank AG, said by telephone from Zurich. “On M&A, CEOs are doing what they should be doing. They’re looking at their portfolios and trying to benefit from opportunities. That should be a tailwind for markets.”
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