Investing.com – U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday as optimism on equities remained elevated on signs of a resurgence in dealmaking.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 23,548.42. The S&P 500 closed 0.13% higher while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6786.44, up 0.33%.
In what was quiet day on economic calendar for top-tier data, corporate specific events dominated flows after Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) announced an offer to buy fellow chip maker Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) for $103 billion while Fox was reported to have held talks with Disney in recent weeks over a possible sale.
Shares of Qualcomm rose more than 5% in early morning New York trade before pairing gains to close more than 1% while shares of Fox closed 9% higher.
In the tech sector, shares of Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) surged more than 6% after the company said it will team up with Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) to compete with NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in the laptop gaming chip market. The move higher in AMD helped reverse some of its recent losses following an earnings report last week that fell short of Wall Street estimates.
The flurry of dealmaking activity comes amid third quarter earnings as Michael Kors reported earnings that beat expectations on the top and bottom lines.
Following the upbeat earnings report from Michael Kors, Jefferies raised its price target to $62 on shares of high-end retailer on signs that the turnaround plan was starting to take shape.
An uptick in Middle East political turmoil, however, capped gains after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman led an anti-corruption drive over the weekend which resulted in a series of arrests of prominent Saudi Arabians.
'Bulls and Bears' on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers for the session: Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) up 1.9%, Chevron (NYSE:CVX) up 1.6% and Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) up 1.3%
Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ), down 1.6%, DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) down 1.2% and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) down 1.1%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.