News Summary

The May Challenger job-cut report was released today. According to the report, planned layoffs at the US companies stood at 38,810 in May. The May figure is slightly up from 38,326 in the month of April, when they touched a four-year low. "Announced job cuts have, for all intents and purposes, returned to pre-recession levels," according to Reuters. Gerdau SA GGB announced today that it has proposed the acquisition of all shares of Gerdau Ameristeel GNA that it does not already own for $11 cash per share. The acquisition deal will be valued at about $1.6 billion. As of now, GGB owns 66.3% outstanding shares of GNA. Gerdau SA aims to finance the acquisition with the help of existing cash resources and committed financing. GGB climbed 0.4%, while GNA soared 61.4% during the pre-market session. Prudential Plc PUK has dumped its plan to buy the Asian unit AIA of American International Group AIG. PUK will also withdraw its $21 billion rights offer that was to be used to fund the deal. The move to cancel the takeover bid will cost PUK around £450 million, or $660 million, as it will have to pay break fees, underwriting charges and currency hedges. At 9:55 am, shares of PUK were trading at $57.14, up 0.74% and AIG had climbed 2.45% to $35.09. Yesterday’s spin-off at First American Company resulted in two separate publicly traded companies, namely First American Financial Corp and CoreLogic Inc. First American Financial started trading on the NYSE today under the ticker FAF that was earlier used by First American Company. CoreLogic will begin trading on the NYSE under its new ticker symbol, CLGX. While FAF provides title insurance and settlement services to the real estate and mortgage industries, CLGX provides financial, consumer and property information to business and government. By 10:17 am, shares of FAF had fallen 3.60% to $14.47. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.