US stocks have closed mostly higher as investors weighed mixed company news and an unexpected slump in home builder confidence.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 23.99 points (0.15 per cent) at 16,130.40.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite climbed 28.76 (0.68 per cent) to 4,272.78 , while the S&P 500 index, a broad measure of the markets, advanced 2.13 (0.12 per cent) to 1,840.76.
“Equity indices kicked off the abbreviated trading week on a relatively quiet note,” analysts at Briefing.com said in a client note. Markets were closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.
The health care sector gained support on news of a $US25 billion ($A27.77 billion) acquisition deal that has Irish generic drug maker Actavis buying US specialty pharmaceuticals firm Forest Laboratories.
Actavis will pay $US89.48 ($A99.41) per Forest share, a premium of about 25 per cent over Forest’s closing share price on Friday. US-traded Actavis shares surged 5.0 per cent to $US201.47 ($A223.82) and Forest Labs soared 27.5 per cent to $91.04.
On the blue-chip Dow, Merck rose 0.5 per cent and UnitedHealth Group gained 0.4 per cent.
Coca-Cola was the Dow’s biggest laggard, losing 3.8 per cent after fourth-quarter revenue missed Wall Street expectations.
Shares of home builders came under pressure after the National Association of Home Builders said its sentiment index tumbled to 46 in February from 56 in January.
NAHB said unusually severe weather conditions in much of the country was largely to blame for the slump in confidence.
Beazer Homes USA dived 2.3 per cent, Lennar shed 0.8 per cent and Toll Brothers lost 0.6 per cent.
Struggling Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry rose 0.9 per cent after activist investor Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point disclosed Friday it had bought a 1.93 per cent stake.
IPhone maker Apple rose 0.4 per cent helped by press reports that it is in talks to buy electric automaker Tesla Motors. Tesla advanced 2.8 per cent.
News that the developer of the popular Candy Crush game, King Digital Entertainment, is seeking a listing on the New York Stock Exchange rippled through tech stocks.
Candy Crush is available on Facebook ( +0.3 per cent) and on mobile platforms run by Apple, Google (+0.7 per cent) and Amazon (-1.0 per cent).
Zynga, which developed Facebook games such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars, jumped 5.8 per cent.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury dropped to 2.68 per cent from 2.75 per cent Friday, while the 30-year fell to 3.67 per cent from 3.70 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
