Dow Rallies Over 100 Points

After several days of depressing stock market action for the bulls, they finally got a win.
But first, the scoreboard:

Dow: +104
NASDAQ: +27
S&P 500: +13

And now, the day's top stories:

The big story of the day was the news that miner BHP Billiton had made an unsolicited offer for Potash (fertilizer) for $34 billion (a 16% premium to the Monday close). Potash rejected the offer, but it's stock shot up well beyond the buyout offer, bringing along with it several other names, including Mosaic and Intrepid Potash. Potash explained here why it's rejecting the deal >

Officially making this a "Merger Tuesday" was the announced deal between Reynolds and Pactiv.

Also good news: Spain and Ireland held successful debt auctions today, allaying fears for now.

The macro data was mixed. New housing starts came in below expectations, but industrial production and capacity utilization were both solid. The PPI was also inflationary, so that's good.

Meanwhile, both Wal-Mart and Lowe's reported decent earnings, also helping things.

source:businessinsider