9:05am (EST)
Futures are pointing towards a slightly lower open this morning despite another round of M&A news as Wall Street kicks off the start of the week. There are a couple of economic reports due out this morning which could impact trading, pending home sales and factory orders for August are due out later this morning.
Pending home sales are expected to come in at 3% compared with a rise of 5.2% the month before, while factory orders likely fell 0.4% from a gain of 0.1% the previous month.

As far as merger and acquisitions news, Sanofi-Aventis (SNY, $33.12, down $0.13) has gone hostile as it tries to acquire Genzyme (GENZ, $70.88, down $0.11) for $69 per share, while Microsemi (MSCC, $17.11, down $0.01) has agreed to buy Actel (ACTL, $16.02, up $0.07) for about $21 a share.
The bid from Sanofi-Aventis is a slap in the face to Genzyme’s shareholders and will likely get rejected. The latest offer allows shareholders of Genzyme to vote “yes” or “no” directly for the $18.5 billion bid. The current bid that is on the table is the same offer from the summer as the price is unchanged from Sanofi’s first offer. Genzyme’s board has already rejected the bid as too low and we expect shareholders to follow suit.
As we head to press, Dow futures are lower by 30 points to 10,738 while the S&P 500 futures are down 4 ticks to 1,138. The Nasdaq 100 futures are lower by 8 points to 1,987.











M&A News Doesn’t Excite Market
Monday, August 30th, 2010
12:45pm (EST)
It’s been a slow day of trading although the bears took an early stab at stocks and pushed the market lower at the open. The bulls have battled back somewhat but they didn’t seem too inspired despite a flurry of merger and acquisition (M&A) news today. The lack of follow-through from Friday’s big push isn’t a good sign to start the week and the bulls will face major resistance levels if they do mount a rally today.
In corporate news, Intel (INTC, $18.07, down $0.30) said it was buying Infineon Technologies AG’s wireless-solutions business for nearly $1.4 billion in cash. This wasn’t a huge deal for Intel, which warned of lower revenue growth for the current quarter, but it was a smart one. The deal with Infineon will bolster Intel’s internet business and allow the company to offer a full range of wireless options, including 3G, Wi-Fi and Wi-Max.
3M (MMM, $80.29, down $0.71) stepped-up to the plate and offered Cogent (COGT, $10.72, up $1.81) $10.50 a share to do a deal. Shares are up 20% and Wall Street is valuing the marriage at $1 billion. 3M is in love with Cogent’s toys which capture electronic fingerprint and palm print images that can then be used to encode prints into searchable files. This allow cross-referencing and companies or agencies can then compare a set of prints to a database.
And finally, in a deal that looks like the ante may have to be raised, Genzyme (GENZ, $70.10, up $2.48) is up 4% after rejecting Sanofi-Aventis (SNY, $29.03, up $0.11) proposal to acquire them for $69 a share in cash. Genzyme has an impressive drug in its pipeline and could be holding out for $80-$85 a share. They think they have something special with Campath, a multiple sclerosis drug that is in the experimental stages, and Genzyme wants a bigger premium to account for potential sales.
As we head to press, the Dow is down 68 points, or 0.7%, and is at 10,082. We mentioned in our Weekly Wrap that resistance would come in at 10,200 and the low for the day has been 10,071.
The S&P is lower by 7 points, or 0.7%, and is at 1,057. The index continues to have trouble with the 1,070 level and a break below 1,040 will not be good for the bulls. The S&P has traded to a low of 1,056 today.
The Nasdaq is once again leading the way to the downside as the index is off by 16 points, or 0.8%, to 2,137. Tech has traded to a high of 2,154 and the 2,150 level continues to act as strong resistance. Support is at 2,100 and then 2,050.
We have updated all of our current trades and we have spent much of the morning looking for new trades this week. There are a few we like, but we want to do more research before adding them to our Watch List which is already exploding with possible plays were are eyeballing. Subscribers, check the Members Area for the updates.
Tags: 3M, GENZ, INTC, option picks, SNY, stock options trading
Posted in Market Commentary, Mergers and Acquisitions | Comments Off