Fly Intel: Wall Street's top stories for Monday

Stocks opened higher as the rally that began last week spilled over to today. The averages diverged at the open, with the Dow moving higher and the Nasdaq lagging, but by midday the major averages were green across the board. The S&P crept closer to an all-time high, falling just short of a new record. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., no economic reports of note were released. COMPANY NEWS: PepsiCo (PEP) announced a deal to buy SodaStream (SODA) for $144 per share in cash in a $3.2B transaction that likely represents the last big bet being placed by outgoing CEO Indra Nooyi. PepsiCo's "strong distribution capabilities, global reach, R&D, design and marketing expertise, combined with SodaStream's differentiated and unique product range will position SodaStream for further expansion and breakthrough innovation," the companies stated. SodaStream shares closed 9.4% higher at $142.11 after the announcement, while Pepsi shares were little changed... In other M&A news, Tyson Food (TSN) announced it has reached a definitive agreement to buy Keystone Foods, which supplies chicken, beef, fish and pork to quick-service restaurant chains including McDonald's (MCD), from Marfrig Global Foods for $2.16B in cash... JPMorgan analyst Ryan Brinkman lowered his price target on Tesla (TSLA) shares to $195 from $308 as he reverts back to valuing the shares on the basis of fundamentals alone. While the analyst acknowledged that Tesla does appear to be exploring a going private transaction, he now believes that such a process appears much less developed than he had earlier presumed, suggesting formal incorporation into his valuation analysis seems premature at this time. Additionally, Fox Business' Charles Gasparino reported that Tesla's lawyers believe that the SEC is "under pressure" to expedite its investigation of the car maker. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was China Biologic (CBPO), which rose 9% after a consortium of investors proposed to acquire the company for $118 per share. Also higher was Nike (NKE), which gained 3% after Susquehanna analyst Sam Poser upgraded the stock to Positive and Piper Jaffray analyst Erinn Murphy upgraded the stock to Overweight. Among the notable losers was Lannett (LCI), which plunged 60% after it reported preliminary Q4 results and said it will not renew its contract with Jerome Stevens Pharmaceuticals. Also lower were Class A shares of News Corp. (NWSA), which fell 2.4% after Andrew McLeod downgraded the stock to Underweight from Equal Weight. INDEXES: The Dow rose 89.37, or 0.35%, to 25,758.69, the Nasdaq gained 4.68, or 0.06%, to 7,821.01, and the S&P 500 advanced 6.92, or 0.24%, to 2,857.05.