STOCKS TICK UP: Here's what you need to know
Stocks edged up on Monday, with all three indices just barely scraping to new highs.
- Dow: 23,556.61, +17.42, (+0.07%)
- S&P 500: 2591.78, +3.98, (+0.17%)
- Nasdaq: 6,789.11, +24.51, (+0.38%)
1. Disney has reportedly been in talks to buy most of 21st Century Fox, CNBC's David Faber reported. A deal would exclude the Fox broadcast network because Disney can't own two broadcast networks, the report said. It would also exclude Fox's sports channels to avoid regulatory scrutiny that would come on concerns that combining with ESPN is anti-competitive.
2. Broadcom offered to buy its rival Qualcomm in what would be the largest tech deal ever... A deal would make Broadcom the third-largest maker of chips and other components that go into smartphones behind Intel and Samsung, according to Bloomberg.
3. ...But Qualcomm is going to do whatever it takes to fend of Broadcom. The offer price undervalues Qualcomm and is below what its board would seriously consider, the Financial Times reported. That's in spite of the 28% premium that Broadcom's offer places on Qualcomm's closing price Thursday, the eve of the first news report on the deal.
4. Saudi Arabia detained 11 princes, dozens of former ministers, and billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal over the weekend. "We expect no immediate changes in oil policy." Helima Croft, the global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note to clients. "MBS seems strongly committed to anchoring the OPEC agreement deep into 2018 and moving ahead with the Aramco sale."
5. House GOP leaders scored a big win for their giant tax plan. Rep. Tom MacArthur of New Jersey on Monday said he planned to support the tax bill rolled out by House GOP leaders last week, despite changes to a key deduction for his state. He was initially skeptical of the bill because of its proposed repeal of most of the state and local tax deduction, which allows people to subtract what they pay in state and local taxes from their federal tax bill.
6. New York Fed President William Dudley is preparing to retire earlier than planned, further setting the stage for a fresh slate of US central bankers next year. The news comes after Trump named Jerome Powell to succeed Janet Yellen as Fed chair last week.
7. Intel and AMD shares climbed after the two companies announced a plan to take on Nvidia, the largest maker of graphics chips. Intel is set to announce a partnership with AMD to produce a processor that would combine an Intel central processing unit (CPU) with an AMD graphics processing unit (GPU), according to the Wall Street Journal. The chips would be intended to be for use in laptops and capable of handling high-end video gaming.
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