Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Media General To Acquire Meredith For $2.4B

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 1.82 percent to 16,395.78 while the NASDAQ climbed 2.05 percent to 4,780.08. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.72 percent to 1,954.27.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

In trading on Tuesday, telecommunications services shares jumped by 2.57 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (ADR) CHU, up 6 percent, and China Telecom Corporation Limited (ADR) CHA, up 5 percent.

Utilities shares rose by just 1.4 percent in Tuesday’s trading. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included TransAlta Corporation (USA) TAC, down 3 percent, and American Midstream Partners LP AMID, off 1.4 percent.

Top Headline

Media General Inc MEG announced its plans to acquire Meredith Corp MDP for around $2.34 billion in a cash and stock transaction.

The offer of $51.53 per share represents around 12 percent premium to Meredith's closing price on Friday.

Equities Trading UP

TECO Energy, Inc. TE shares shot up 24 percent to $26.11 after the company announced it will be acquired by Emera Inc for $10.4 billion.

Shares of Immunomedics, Inc. IMMU got a boost, shooting up 16 percent to $2.49 following announcement of interim Phase 2 Results with sacituzumab govitecan in lung cancers.

Meredith Corporation MDP shares were also up, gaining 10 percent to $50.51 after Media General Inc MEG agreed to acquire Meredith for approximately $2.4 billion.

Equities Trading DOWN

Yingli Green Energy Hold. Co. Ltd. (ADR) YGE shares tumbled 12 percent to $0.641. Yingli Green Energy reported a Q2 ADS loss of $0.53 on revenue of $438.1 million.

Shares of Bonanza Creek Energy Inc BCEI were down 7 percent to $7.01. Cowen downgraded Bonanza Creek Energy from Market Perform to Underperform and lowered the price target from $10.00 to $4.00.

Infinera Corp. INFN was down, falling 5 percent to $20.37. Goldman Sachs downgraded Infinera from Neutral to Sell and lowered the price target from $24.00 to $19.00.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.61 percent to $45.31, while gold traded up 0.01 percent to $1,121.50.

Silver traded up 0.90 percent Tuesday to $14.68, while copper rose 3.74 percent to $2.40.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 surged 1.92 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index jumped 1.31 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 2.13 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX climbed 2.36 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 1.99 percent, while U.K. shares rose 1.69 percent.

Economics

The NFIB small-business optimism index increased 0.5 points to 95.9 in August.

Data on consumer credit for July will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.