Deals send stocks edging higher on Wall Street

NEW YORK — A handful of corporate deals helped nudge the stock market up in midday trading Monday, despite a disappointing report on the economy.

Amgen surged 8 percent, the biggest gain in the Standard & Poor's 500 index, after the biotech giant said it plans to buy Onyx Pharmaceuticals for $10.4 billion. The merger, announced late Sunday, would give Amgen three approved cancer treatments and several others in clinical trials.

The S&P 500 index was up three points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,666 as of 12:30 p.m. EDT. Health-care companies led seven of the 10 industry sectors in the S&P 500 slightly higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 24 points, or 0.2 percent, to 15,035. The Nasdaq composite index rose 19 points, or 0.5 percent, at 3,667.

In economic news, the government reported that orders for long-lasting manufactured goods plunged 7.3 percent last month, the steepest drop in nearly a year. Demand for commercial aircraft sank and businesses spent less on computers and electrical equipment.

Jack Ablin, the chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago, said it's likely that investors are looking past the one bad economic report because so many major events loom ahead.

The Federal Reserve will start a two-day meeting Sept. 17 at which officials will discuss easing support for the economy. After that, Germany holds national elections that could change how the region handles rescue loans for troubled countries. Congress returns from vacation next week and will have to take up a new budget before the fiscal year starts on Oct. 1.

"These issues are big enough to transcend daily data," Ablin said.

It's also expected to be a quiet week, because volume usually dries up in the last weeks of August. Trading desks are thinly staffed, as Labor Day marks the end of Wall Street's summer vacation.

News that members of the Pritzker family have agreed to buy TMS International sent the company's stock up 12 percent. The deal values the service provider to steel mills at roughly $1 billion. The Pritzker family, one of America's wealthiest, operates a global industrial conglomerate and founded the Hyatt hotel chain. TMS jumped $1.81 to $17.38.

With five trading days left in August, the major indexes are on track to end the month with slight losses. The Dow is down 3 percent for the month and the S&P 500 is down 1 percent.

In the market for U.S. government bonds, the yield on the 10-year note slipped to 2.79 percent from 2.82 percent late Friday. That followed an even sharper decline on Friday, when the declined seven basis points.

Crude oil slipped 56 cents to $105.86 a barrel and gold fell $1.80 to $1,394 an ounce.

Among other stocks making big moves:

— Anadarko Petroleum climbed $1.74, or 2 percent, to $91.54. The oil and gas producer said late Sunday that it's selling part of its stake in a natural-gas site off the shores of Mozambique for $2.64 billion.

— Amgen gained $9.50 to $115.05, hitting a new all-time high. Onyx rose $6.72, or 6 percent, to $123.68.

— The electric-car maker Tesla climbed $9.69, or 6 percent, to $171.50, following reports that, in California, Tesla's Model S outsold Cadillac, Porsche, Jaguar and other brands in June.

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