Greek Austerity Budget Approved, Markets Advance
November 12, 2012 at 05:32 AM EST
The Greek parliament approved the nation’s austerity budget for 2013 over the weekend which will move the country closer to gaining access to vital bailout funds. The markets advanced during the midday with the Dow rising 44 points to 12,859. Nasdaq gained 13 points to 2917.On the upsideJefferies Group’s (NYSE: JEF) largest shareholder Leucadia National (NYSE: LUK) will acquire the investment bank in a deal valued at approximately $2.8 billion.Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) reported positive results from a Phase III trial of its pancreatic cancer treatment Abraxane.Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY) offered approximately $839 million to acquire the remaining shares of CreXus Investment (NYSE: CXS) that it does not already own. On the downsidePropThink wrote that the management team at Galena Biopharma (Nasdaq: GALE) was incompetent and that the biotechnology company reported inaccurate clinical trial results.Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH) widened fourth quarter losses more than expected even as revenue climbed.Credit Suisse downgraded J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) to an Underperform rating after the department store operator reported wider than expected third quarter losses on Friday.In the broad market, advancing issues were on par with decliners on the NYSE while advancers barely edged out decliners by a slim margin on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks held steady at 795.
