The Dow Gained 48 Points, Nasdaq Fell 1

The Dow gained 48.35 points to close at 13,312.97, the Nasdaq fell 1.20 points to close at 2,570.95, and the S&P 500 added 3.86 points to close at 1,509.48. Oil fell $0.41 to close at $61.52. Another 'Merger Monday' helped the Dow pass the 13,300 mark for the first time. Early this morning, Alcoa (NYSE: AA) offered to acquire Alcan (NYSE: AL) for $27 billion. BAE Systems announced it will acquire Armor Holdings (NYSE: AH) for $4.1 billion. Flow Int'l (Nasdaq: FLOW) and Gottschalks Inc. (NYSE: GOT) closed higher on takeover rumors.

Volume was light with 2.60 billion shares trading on the NYSE and 1.76 billion trading on the Nasdaq. Advancers topped Decliners by a margin of 18:14 on the NYSE, but decliner won 16:14 on the Nasdaq.

In individual stories, Alcan Inc. (NYSE: AL) gained 34.5% after Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) offered to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Alcan for US$58.60 in cash and 0.4108 of a share of Alcoa common stock for each outstanding common share of Alcan. Alcoa expects to begin its offer on Tuesday, May 8, 2007. Based on Alcoa's closing stock price on May 4, 2007, the offer has a value of US$73.25 per Alcan share or approximately US$33 billion in enterprise value. IDM Pharma (NASDAQ: IDMI) fell 44% after U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee said it will review the company's Junovan drug on May 9th. (NOTE - Briefing document shows drug not effective in childhood bone cancer)

Tomorrow, investors will be looking for earnings from Abitibi-Consol (NYSE: ABY), Allied Capital (NYSE: ALD), Church & Dwight (NYSE: CHD), CVS Corp (NYSE: CVS), Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), El Paso (NYSE: EP), Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE), Harrah's (NYSE: HET) James River Coal (Nasdaq: JRCC) Lazard Capital (NYSE: LAZ), Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC), Molson Coors Brewing (NYSE: TAP), Revlon (NYSE: REV), Sunrise Assisted (NYSE: SRZ), Tyco (NYSE: TYC), United Auto (NYSE: UAG), Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), WCI Communities (NYSE: WCI) and Westwood One (NYSE: WON).

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