Wall Street stocks opened little changed on Friday, continuing a trend of thin trading and tight moves, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 in range of extending its weekly streak of gains to seven.
The S.&P. 500, the Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq composite index all tiptoed into positive territory in morning trading. European stock indexes were also slightly higher in afternoon trading.
Data showed manufacturing in New York state expanded in February for the first time in seven months, bolstered by a surge of new orders, but industrial production slipped 0.1 percent in January.
A surge in merger and acquisition activity, with more than $158 billion in deals announced so far in 2013, has given support to the equity market as it points to healthy valuations and bets on the economic outlook.
“No retracement of this move is positive — it shows underlying support for this market,” said Art Hogan, managing director of Lazard Capital Markets in New York. He said the flurry of mergers and acquisitions should be seen as a tailwind for the market.
Herbalife shares soared 18.6 percent a day after the billionaire investor Carl Icahn said in a regulatory filing that he now owns 13 percent of Herbalife and was ready to put it in play.
Burger King Worldwide shares jumped 6.8 percent after it beat estimates with a 94 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit because of menu additions.
Stocks Trade in Narrow Range
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Stocks Trade in Narrow Range
