Walgreen added $1.29 or 5.05% to end at $26.84.Shares of Rite Aid Corp. increased 1 cent or 2.94% to 35 cents.
Jeff Kindler, CEO Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), said that the world's largest pharmaceutical company) is open to acquisition opportunities. “The real goal is to grow revenues ... We are open to opportunities and constantly looking at those which are big, small and in-between," Kindler said in a statement.
Natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) climbed 86 cents or 4.98% after it announced that it has raised $412 million by selling various assets in the Anadarko and Arkoma Basins.
New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT), the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, began selling display ads on the front page starting Monday, amid falling revenue and deepening recession. US media giant CBS Corp (NYSE: CBS) was the first front page advertiser.
President-elect Barack Obama is expected to include a massive $300 billion in tax cuts for middle class and business in his $775 billon stimulus plan meant to rescue US economy from a deepening recession.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve and ECB reiterated their commitment to fight the threat of deflation. In an annual meeting of the American Economics Association on Sunday, San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen said "It is increasingly likely that inflation will fall to undesirably low levels. I'm strongly supportive of a substantial fiscal stimulus package. If ever, in my professional career, there was a time for active, discretionary fiscal stimulus, it is now." Vice president of ECB Lucas Papademos said in a statement "We will do what is necessary, in terms of the timing and in terms of the size (of interest rate policy action) to ensure that price stability is preserved."
A release by Commerce Department on Monday showed construction spending fell by 0.6% in November against consensus estimates of 1.3%.
European stocks finished with moderate gains. The U.K. FTSE rose 17.85 points or 0.39% to 4,579.64. The DAX index of Germany and French CAC added 0.22% and 0.31% respectively.
Asian stocks settled with hefty gains. The Nikkei 225 advanced 183.56 points or 2.07% to close at 9,043.12.Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 520.50 points or 3.46% to 15,563.31.
NYMEX crude oil for February delivery climbed $1.98, or 4.2%, to settle at $48.32 a barrel.
Disclosure: Author does not own any of the stocks discussed here.
