Wall Street Opens Higher on Mergers

Wall Street opened higher this morning following a raft of mergers, which gave traders a sense of optimism about the economy following a tough week.

In the first 15 minutes of trading, the Dow is up 45 points, or about half of 1 percent.

The S&P 500 is up six-tenths of 1 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up slightly more.

Some of the key pre-market mergers today:

-- Xerox is buying Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion, moving the copier giant into data management and outsourcing in a diversification play.

-- Johnson & Johnson is paying $444 million for an 18 percent stake in Crucell, a Dutch vaccine maker.

Mergers are typically a sign of a healthier market; they had ground to a halt over the past year. They also, however, are a sign of a cheap market. Companies with cash are able to buy companies whose values have gone down during the recession, much like housing speculators buy foreclosed homes.

-- Frank Ahrens
Sign up to get The Ticker on Twitter