Midway through the trading day on Monday, the New York equities markets were working on the biggest one-day gain in a month and a half. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.2 percent at mid-session to 11,241.87, while the Nasdaq Composite had added 0.8 percent to 2,357.24 and the S&P 500 had gained 1.1 percent to 1,308.92. Once again, mergers and acquisitions provided much of the fuel for the advances, along with higher commodities prices and strong construction data.
Miners were up on new high prices for such commodities as gold and copper. Copper miner Phelps Dodge added 5.1 percent to $84.62, while gold miner Newmont Mining gained 1.6 percent to $52.71 and aluminium company Alcoa was up 2.5 percent to $31.32.
In the oil sector, rising crude oil prices took the Amex Oil index up 1.9 percent. ExxonMobil advanced by 1.6 percent to $61.82, while ConocoPhillips was up 3.1 percent to $65.12.
New figures on construction took construction machinery company Caterpillar 4.6 percent higher.
The announcement of the anticipated merger between Alcatel and Lucent meant gains for both telecommunications equipment makers. Lucent added over 1.6 percdent to $3.10 and Alcatel was up 6 percent to $16.33 on news of the deal, worth $13.4 billion. Hopes for further consolidation in the sector took Ciena up 2.3 percent to $5.33.
Casino operator Aztar was up 5.7 percent to $44.37 on the announcement that Ameristar Casinos had offered $2.25 billion, or $42 per share. It was the third bid Aztar had received. Ameristar Casinos dropped 5.9 percent to $24.26 on the news.