- Commentary -

November 10, 2009 (FinancialWire) (By Philip Holmes) — Stocks ended higher on Monday as word filtered in that government bailout fever has gone worldwide again. Investors were also cheered by renewed bullish sentiment on the M&A front, with Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) leading the pack by going hostile in its bid for Britain’s Cadbury (NYSE: CBY).

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the trading day at 10,226.94, up by 203.52 points, while the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained 23.78 points, for 1,093.08. The Nasdaq composite index closed at 2,154.06, up by 41.62 points.

Not all market players were giddy: BusinessWeek quotes Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research saying, “I am running into more equity portfolio managers who are fully invested bears.” The reason? You can’t fight city hall, or in this case the Fed. Hold your nose and invest.

But higher stock prices does seem to have perked up M&A action. Among the deals: Sprint Nextel will invest $1 billion in Clearwire, a wireless broadband provider. General Electric and Comcast will form a $30 billion JV that will give Comcast control of NBC Universal, in which GE holds an 80% stake.

Silly money, reminiscent of those glory days before the fall, (say, 2007) was also on the table. Google agreed to pay $750 million for AdMob, a California-based startup in the field of mobile advertising.

At a meeting in Scotland, G-20 leaders have agreed to keep the government stimulus money flowing in the face of a rocky and uncertain global economic recovery. The leaders agreed to agree on what form certain policies may take, but a disagreement between the US and UK over a financial services tax makes this seem unlikely in the near term.

Let’s face it, Team Obama has taken a coddling approach to financial sector reform versus even close ally the UK. The rest of Europe favors far stricter measures, including the breakup of large financial firms. Britain, in contrast to the US, has at least been willing to entertain the aforementioned tax, and has shown a reluctant willingness to nationalize banks where necessary. So, good luck with a global solution!

[Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=philip+holmes to see more commentaries by Philip Holmes.]

The FirstAlert(tm) Economics Calendar lists Weekly Chain Store Sales (8:55 a.m.), Treasury auctions 10-year notes (1 p.m.).

The FirstAlert(tm) Events Calendar showcases  $25 bln 10-yr Treasury Note Auction; ADBE, NFLX, YHOO, RHT at Piper Jaffray Global Internet Summit; ADVX, NDAQ, MKTX, CATM at Deutsche Bank Securities FinTech Senior Executive Forum; ALK Investors Day; ANR, AHGP, CNX, WLT at Raymond James Coal Investors Conference; BAC, GS, MS, TD at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Banking and Financial Services Conference; BWA, CFX, MWA, CAT at Robert W. Baird & Co Industrial Conference; CBST, SIRO at Jefferies Healthcare Summit; CEPH 2009 R&D Day; EGN Investor Day; MON Biennial Investor Event Operational and Financial Presentation; VASC, ISIS, ELGX, ATRC at CanaccordAdams Cardiovascular Conference.

FirstAlert(tm) Website of the Day: http://www.lightfoot.ca/

Quote of the Day: “If you’re going to make rubbish, be the best rubbish in it.” Richard Burton

Today is: National Young Reader’s Day.

Happy Birthday: Martin Luther, Winston Churchill, Claude Rains, Russell Johnson, Richard Burton, Roy Scheider, Greg Lake, Dave Loggins, Sinbad, Brittany Murphy.

Today in History: Henry Morton Stanley located missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, in 1871, near Lake Tanganyika saying “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” The first national convention of the American Legion was held in 1919 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kate Smith, on her weekly radio show, sang Irving Berlin’s God Bless America for the first time in 1938. National Educational Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuted the children’s television program Sesame Street in 1969. The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975 during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board.

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