As the official end of summer has come the markets celebrate with a positive day with nice volume. The Dow 30 was up 46, the S&P 500 gained 6 and the Nasdaq 100 was positive by 26. The excitement continues into tomorrow when traders get a look at the Fed's Beige book in the afternoon.
General Electric (GE ) a doubling down of sorts in the 3D printing space. The US industrial conglomerate announced that it is buying Sweden's Arcam, and Germany's SLM Solutions for a total of $1.4 billion. This news helped spark a small bounce in shares of struggling US 3D makers this morning. Stratasys (SSYS ) popped 3.784%, along with 3D Systems (DDD ) which added 5.56%. GE shares were down 0.77% on the news.
PayPal (PYPL ) started strong this morning but were unable to hold on to the days gains (0.30%). The move came after the Wall Street Journal reported that the online payment processor has reached a deal with MasterCard (MA ) to allow users to set MasterCard credit or debit cards as a default payment method. This comes after a similar deal with Visa (V ) earlier this year, as Paypal looks to expand its presence in stores.
Monsanto (MON ) shares shot up early this morning after German chemical giant Bayer raised its bid to buy the US seed and pesticides company to $127.50 a share from $125 a share. That values the offer at about $56 billion, which does not include Monsanto's debt. The news was a profit taking opportunity though as it seems investors sold on the news. Shares were lower by 1.28%, well off their highs of the session.
Spectra Energy (SE ) was the big winner of the day as the Houston-based energy firm announced it is merging with Canada's biggest pipeline company, Enbridge (ENB ), in an all stock deal valued at $28 billion. The deal will create North America's largest energy infrastructure company with an enterprise value of $127 billion dollars. Spectra was higher by 13.42%, and Enbridge also benefited with a 5.05% gain.