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 The Nasdaq Composite rose for an eighth straight session, a streak
not seen since early July.
Economic reports were disappointing, but following a recent pattern,
soft data was mostly dismissed by the market and blamed on the
weather. U.S. homebuilder confidence suffered its largest one-month
drop ever in February, and the New York Federal Reserve's gauge of
manufacturing was weaker than expected.
"We're going to see weather as a huge brush over a lot of economic
data, mostly if it is related to the consumer," said Kim Forrest,
senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in
Pittsburgh.
"People don't go out and look at homes in crappy weather."
Forest Laboratories <FRX.N> was the S&P 500's best performer after
Actavis <ACT.N> said it would acquire the specialty pharmaceuticals
company in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $25 billion.
"This has everything to do with the changing face of healthcare and
how we pay for it in the United States," Fort Pitt's Forrest said.
"If there was one big deal, there could be others."
Forest Labs shares soared 27.5 percent to $91.04. Shares of generic
drug makers Teva <TEVA.N> and Mylan <MYL.O> rose on the news. Teva
gained 3.3 percent to $45.67. Mylan shot up 4.8 percent to 48.30 and
was the best performer in the Nasdaq 100 <.NDX>.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 23.99 points or 0.15
percent, to end at 16,130.40. The S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 2.13 points
or 0.12 percent, to finish at 1,840.76. The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC>
added 28.758 points or 0.68 percent, to close at 4,272.783.
The S&P 500 closed 0.4 percent below its record close hit on January
15. The small-cap Russell 2000 <.TOY> outperformed the overall
market with a 1.1 percent gain for the day.
Coca-Cola Co <KO.N> reported global sales volumes below expectations
and its stock fell 3.8 percent to $37.47, weighing on the Dow.
With few obvious justifications for stocks climbing further,
investors are left in the position they were in at the beginning of
the year: unsure about the economy and earnings, but facing an
environment where few other assets offer the same potential return
as the equity market.
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After the closing bell, Herbalife <HLF.N> shares rose 4 percent
after the company posted quarterly results and guidance.
Tesla Motors <TSLA.O> shares hit an all-time high following a report
that Apple's mergers and acquisitions chief, Adrian Perica, met
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk last year, sparking
speculation that Apple could be interested in buying the electric
car maker.
Tesla shares rose 2.8 percent to $203.70 after hitting a record
intraday high of $206. Apple shares edged up 0.4 percent to $545.99.
U.S.-traded shares of BlackBerry Ltd <BBRY.O> rose 5.3 percent to
$9.46. Dan Loeb's Third Point LLC Hedge fund disclosed a
10-million-share stake in the Canadian company.
Swedish mobile phone game maker King, best known for the hit Candy
Crush Saga, is planning a U.S. stock market debut that could value
it at more than $5 billion and trigger a flurry of technology
company listings.
About 6.2 billion shares traded on U.S. exchanges, below the 7.13
billion average so far in February, according to data from BATS
Global Markets.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock
Exchange by a ratio of 2 to 1. On the Nasdaq, about nine issues rose
for every four that fell.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; editing by
Bernadette Baum, Nick Zieminski and Jan Paschal)
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