The stock market had a terrible time last week, so many investors came back from the long weekend hoping to see a bit of a bounce. That’s exactly what they got as Wall Street seemed to be in a better mood despite ongoing concerns about inflation and economic sluggishness. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.00%), S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.13%), and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.00%) all finished sharply higher, with gains of around 2% to 2.5% on the day.
|
Index |
Daily Percentage Change |
Daily Point Change |
|---|---|---|
|
Dow |
+2.15% |
+641 |
|
S&P 500 |
+2.45% |
+90 |
|
Nasdaq |
+2.51% |
+271 |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
There’s been a rising amount of merger and acquisition activity as companies try to take advantage of bargain stock prices to find good strategic fits. On Tuesday, investors looked closely at Mondelez International (MDLZ 0.77%) and JetBlue Airways (JBLU -0.95%) because both companies made plays toward acquisitions that could yield some great growth opportunities for the companies involved.
Mondelez looks over the Clif
Shares of Mondelez International were up almost 2% on Tuesday. The food giant looked like it needed some energy because it announced a purchase over the weekend that should help it in a key segment.
Mondelez will pay $2.9 billion to purchase privately held Clif Bar, which makes the Clif and Luna brands of organic snack bars. Clif’s owners also stand to make more money based on contingent earn-out provisions in the acquisition agreement.
With the deal, Mondelez will boost its global snack bar business above the $1 billion mark, and it believes that Clif and Luna will complement its refrigerated snack business in both the U.S. and U.K. markets. In addition, Mondelez sees the acquisition as furthering its broader strategy to emphasize higher-growth opportunities in the food business.
Mondelez has already been busy in the acquisition space, with purchases of Mexican confectionary specialist Ricolino as well as European cake…
