The U.S. stock market once again went nowhere on Tuesday, but SPSS (NASDAQ: SPSS) and Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ: VECO) posted some eye-popping gains.
SPSS soared 41% on news that the company will be acquired by IBM (NYSE: IBM) for $1.2 billion.
And Veeco surged 37% after raising its sales and earnings forecast for the current quarter well above analysts’ estimates, and the company benefited from a Citi upgrade too.
Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) was another big winner, up 25% on a takeover deal with Sprint.
The rest of the market spent the day meandering between losses and gains before ending the day mixed. The Dow and S&P finished slightly lower, while the Nasdaq eked out a 0.4% gain.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) finally managed small gains after two days of selling pressure following disappointing quarterly sales.
Trident Micro (NASDAQ: TRID) fell 22% on its results.
After the close, Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) was little changed despite a blow-out earnings report.
The Nasdaq added 7 to 1975, the S&P 500 slipped 2 to 979, and the Dow lost 11 to 9096. Volume rose to 5.5 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.24 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led by a 19-16 margin on the NYSE, while advancers led 14-12 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 49% on the NYSE, and 55% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 93-59 on the NYSE, and 72-12 on the Nasdaq.