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Wall Street shares roared back today to snap a three-day losing streak, boosted by a pick-up in merger and acquisition activity.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 124.67 points (1.28 percent) in closing trades to 9,789.36.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite added 39.82 points (1.90%) to 2,130.74 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 18.60 points (1.78 percent) to a provisional close of 1,062.98.
Traders returned yesterday to witness an early stock rebound after the market fell for the third consecutive day Friday as disappointing economic data prompted investors to retrench ahead of the weekend.
Stocks overcame broad-based losses in Asia and gained ground amid a couple of large merger and acquisition announcements, suggesting growing confidence in the corporate sector, analysts at Charles Schwab & Co said in a note to clients.
"The return of 'Merger Monday' has sparked a triple digit rally on the Dow," they said. Xerox Corp. will acquire Affiliated Computer Services for about 6.4 billion dollars, while Abbott Laboratories reported that it will purchase the pharmaceutical unit of Belgium-based Solvay for about 6.6 billion dollars in cash.
"Acquisition premiums have been inconsistent the last several weeks, yet recently they have been quite robust, which is a point that hasn't gotten lost on the speculative crowd," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.
Last week, the S&P 500 experienced its worst weekly decline in nearly two months. The 2.2% drop came in the midst of some weaker-than-expected economic data and an entirely expected Federal Reserve decision to maintain interest rates.
