Wall Street gains on upbeat retail sales, M&A deals

Wall Street rose on Monday after October retail sales and two large proposed acquisitions boosted investors' confidence about stocks' outlook.

Coming off Friday's steep sell-off that ended a five-week winning streak, investors also fretted over weakened New York manufacturing data and lingering European sovereign debt woes. But the concerns were quickly brushed off.

Caterpillar Inc agreed to buy mining equipment maker Bucyrus International Inc for $7.6 billion, driving Bucyrus' stock up 28.9 per cent to $89.77. Caterpillar, a Dow component, rose 2.4 per cent to $82.98.

"Buyouts are indicative of how the cash that has been sitting on the sides is being put to work and retail sales are indicative of how the economy is improving. These are making us believe that this rally could be sustained until the end of the year," said Stephen Massocca, managing director of Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.

UBS Investment Research also said in a note that while companies are expected to remain cautious, "it appears that CFOs have started to loosen up the purse strings."

The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 73.07 points, or 0.65 per cent, to 11,265.65. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 6.78 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 1,205.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 8.41 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 2,526.62.

On the downside, Amazon.com Inc shares fell 2.8 per cent to $160.99 on concerns that the decision by a number of rivals, including Wal-Mart, to offer free shipping could challenge the online retailer's results.

"We have seen a number of shipping specials from a pretty broad array of retailers," said Hudson Square Research analyst Scott Tilghman, who noted that much of the decline was from investors taking advantage of the stock's rise in recent months.

Charts show Amazon's stock is technically weak in the short term, with the daily moving average convergence-divergence at a 'sell' since late October, except for a one-day blip last week. Momentum turned negative on Friday, when it also accumulated a two-day drop of 4.4 per cent.

And after Friday's close below its 20-day moving average -- a first for Amazon since Oct. 11--, the Bollinger bands chart shows a near-term target of $158.65, more than 4 per cent below Friday's close.

Along with Caterpillar, mining equipment shares led the day's advance. Terex Corp climbed 4.2 per cent to $25.45, while Joy Global Inc shot up 8.3 per cent to $78.38. Manitowoc Co Inc, which filed a shelf offering on Friday, added 1.8 per cent to $11.38.

In other M&A action, data storage equipment maker EMC Corp agreed to buy smaller peer Isilon Systems Inc for $2.25 billion. Isilon surged 28.4 per cent to $33.77 and was the second-most active stock on Nasdaq. In contrast, EMC slipped 0.5 per cent to $21.61.