Afternoon Market Update (NTRS, HBC, IBM, DAL, LCC, AMR)

Shares of Northern Trust Corp NTRS gained about 4% after the UK's Daily Mail report. According to the report, HSBC Holdings Plc HBC is likely to make an offer of $65 per share for NTRS. HSBC recently withdrew a plan of purchasing a stake in Nedbank Group. The board of directors of IBM Corp IBM has authorized a $10 billion repurchase plan of its stock. IBM will be having about $12.3 billion for its stock repurchase program with the new authorization. The company is expecting to seek further stock repurchase authorization at the company's board meeting in April 2011. US Airline stocks moved up today, with Delta Air Lines DAL, US Airways LCC and American parent AMR Corp AMR as the top gainers in the list. The NYSE Arca Airline Index (XAL) gained about 0.94%. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.