It was a higher close for the markets with the Dow gaining 87 points to 16,448 as investors shrugged off international concerns to embrace corporate consolidations. Nasdaq eased a point to 4,074.
On the upside
Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) will gain 1.4 million customers from Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) as part of an agreement to alleviate regulatory concerns about the merger of Comcast with Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC).
Agenus (Nasdaq: AGEN) entered a collaboration and license agreement with Merck (NYSE: MRK) to develop antibody based cancer immunotherapies.
Reuters reported that Allergan (NYSE: AGN) was in the process of making another offer for Shire (NYSE: SHPG).
On the downside
Credit Suisse trimmed its solar installation demand outlook for 2014 which sent shares of JA Solar (Nasdaq: JASO) tumbling.
Investors locked in profits on ChannelAdvisor (NYSE: ECOM).
The Wall Street Journal reported that Och-Ziff Capital Management (NYSE: OZM) financed oil and mining deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 10 to 9 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 gained 6 points to 1869. Bitcoin eased $1.11 or 0.25% to $440.31.
