The Week on Wall Street
By: Peter Kang
Peter Kang
Shares of aQuantive surged more than 75% after Microsoft said it will acquire the online advertising firm for $6 billion in cash, a significant premium of 85% to aQuantive's prior day closing price of $35.87.
CNBC confirmed that its parent company, General Electric, was in negotiations to sell its plastics business to Saudi Basic Industries for $11 billion.
Stocks ended the week mostly higher as strong economic data, soothing comments from Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke and continued M&A action kept buyers in the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week with gains of 1.7% while the S&P 500 traded up 1.1%. Both indexes closed higher for the seventh straight week. Not so for the Nasdaq, however, which fell 0.2%.
