4:00PM NY – 10:00PM Germany
At least four deals worth $16 billion in mining, hotel, industrial and restaurant industries supported rising positive sentiment among investors in Europe and New York trading.

Yield on 10-year bond closed at 4.729% and the 30-year bond closed at 4.819%.

Gold decreased $1.90 to close at $626 a troy ounce, silver lost 5 cents to end at $12.71 a troy ounce and copper lost 2 cents to close at $3.337 cents a lb.

Oil gained 90 cents to close at $60.08 a barrel and heating oil increased 4 cents to finish at $1.72 cents a gallon. Gasoline advanced 2 cents to end at $1.529 cents a gallon. Natural gas declined 40 cents to close at $7.479 per mBtu.

Asian markets closed mostly higher led by Indonesia with a gain of 1.73%, India with an increase of 0.43% and Australia with a gain of 0.24%. The decliners were led by a decrease of 0.57% in Taiwan, a loss of 0.47% in Malaysia and a decline of 0.34% in South Korea. Japan gained 1%. The markets ended higher as investors shelved fears about higher U.S. interest rates.

European markets finished higher led by a gain of 1.90% in Norway, an advance of 1.43% in Germany and an increase of 1.26% in Spain. U.K., France and Switzerland gained 1.2%. There were no decliners. European markets closed higher helped by earnings from companies including low-cost carrier Ryanair and deal news on hotel and mining sectors both in Europe and the United States.

Latin America markets closed higher across the region. The advancers were led by a gain of 2.03% in Mexico, an increase of 1.86% in Brazil and an advance of 1.10% in Argentina. Mexico gained in U.S. markets, while Canada boosted by information-technology and energy stocks.

13:00PM European markets rallied on deal news.
European stock markets posted solid gains Monday, lifted by earnings-inspired gains and deal news in Europe and the U.S. The broad rally was mainly contributed by strength in the travel and miner sectors. Insurers and automakers also provided support. Low-cost airline Ryanair was in the spotlight, rising 2.9% on strong Q3 results. Its direct peer easyJet also rose 2.9%. Hotel operators Accor and InterContinental Hotels gained 2% after Four Seasons was offered a takeover bid. London’s FTSE 100 climbed 1.24%, supported by Unilever, up 2.6% on upgrade by Merrill Lynch. The German DAX 30 advanced 1.43%, with industrial-gas and engineering group Linde rising 2.5% after it agreed to sell its forklift division. The French CAC 40 rose 1.24%, supported by advertising group Havas, up 2.9% on Q3 revenue.

Crude oil rose over $1 as the OPEC President said the cartel might have to further reduce production and as Nigerian armed protesters shut down one of the country''s oil facilities. Crude oil December contract rose $1.21 to $60.35 a barrel. Gasoline added 3 cents to $1.5375 a gallon, while heating oil rose 5 cents to $1.67295. Natural gas futures dropped 33 cents to $7.557 per 1,000 cubic feet. London Brent gained 55 cents to $59.70.


11:30AM Stocks rallied on bargain hunting.
Stocks rallied late Monday, extending gains on the back of significant merger announcements which inspired traders to go bargain hunting following the recent weakness. Multi-billion acquisition deals fed investor optimism that stocks are not overvalued. Investors shrugged off a moderate increase in crude prices. The rise in stocks came a day ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.

On the merger news front, Kos Pharmaceuticals Inc. (KOSP: chart) and Four Seasons Hotels (FS: chart) were in the spotlight, along with McKesson (MCK: chart) and Swift (SWFT: chart). Swift (SWFT: chart) shares surged more than 24% after the company said it had received an offer from its largest shareholder and former Chief Executive Jerry Moyes. OSI Restaurant Partners Inc.(OSI: chart) surged 24% after agreeing to be acquired by a private investor group for about $3 billion. Shares of General Electric (GE: chart) rose 0.9% after computer distributor Avnet Inc. (AVT: chart) said it had agreed to buy GE''s Access Distribution, a reseller of business computer systems.

Among earnings-inspired gainers, XM Satellite Radio Holdings (XMSR: chart) surged 16% to $12.73 after the company posted a narrower-than-expected Q3 loss and a 43% jump in subscribers. In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 72.12, or 0.60%, to 12,058.16. The Dow moved back above the benchmark 12,000 level after closing below that Friday. The Standard & Poor''s 500 index was up 11.59, or 0.85%, at 1,375.89, and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 30.31, or 1.30%, to 2,361.10. Bonds fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.73% from 4.71% late Friday.


10:30AM The Sensex advances for the fourth day in a row on consumer goods.
The Sensex on BSE finished 56.10 points, or 0.43%, higher to 13,186.89. The market-breadth was strong. For 1,395 shares that advanced, 1,147 declined and 54 remained unchanged. From the Sensex stocks, 15 advanced while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,240 crore, higher than Rs 4,034 crore on Frriday. The turnover on NSE was Rs 7,752.63 crore.

Economic news

The government said it will cut petrol and diesel prices if it finds the fall in international oil prices to have helped oil companies overcome losses on fuel sales.

Advancers

Hindustan Lever led the advancers, gaining 4.76% to Rs 246.70 on 20.35 lakh shares on reports that the company is preparing for price hike for the fourth time in the year and is to raise product prices by 4-10%.

Other consumer goods stocks advanced on renewed buying interest in the wake of reports that they will resort to price hikes. Mc Dowell advanced 5% to Rs 833.35, Colgate edged up 0.24% to Rs 422, ITC gained 1.60% to Rs 190.20, Godrej Consumer notched 0.72% up to Rs 160.