Shares of DuPont, Dow soar on reports of merger talks

Now comes news that Dow and DuPont are talking about a merger. Farmers said they were concerned about higher prices for seeds and chemicals.

“You are going to have to look into the details to see from a customer-market point view if there is a real benefit”, he said.

Gardey said Dow leadership wouldn’t consider a deal like this if it wouldn’t be good for the company and its shareholders. Cost synergies could reach $3 billion, CNBC reported. That would be the industry’s largest merger ever and the latest mega-deal in a year of mega-deals.

Dow and DuPont, however, could come to represent two of the biggest scalps shareholder activists have claimed in any sector in recent years. “It has been a quite overnight and volumes have been very, very light in most futures markets”, said John Brady, managing director at brokerage R.J.

It holds 53 stocks in its portfolio.

Lululemon closed down 13% after the company reported sales, earnings, and a gross margin below expectations for Q3. The opinions expressed are his own. Dow Chemical rose $5.70 to $56.60. Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross school of business, said the move is in line with numerous other mergers this year.

“Our membership will be very concerned about further consolidation in the ag supply space”, said AFBF chief economist Bob Young. In November, pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Allergan revealed that they would combine in a deal worth about $160 billion to become the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, while in October, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced it would buy SABMiller for about $117 billion to create the world’s largest beer brewer.

Moreover, the Dow Chemical and DuPont merger talks could also make it “more likely that Monsanto re-approaches Syngenta”, Bernstein analysts including Jonas Oxgaard previously said. Alibaba was up 0.32 per cent at $84.65 Costco Wholesale was down 4.2 per cent at $161.8 after it reported a fall in same-store sales for the third straight quarter.

St. Charles Operations. A 2,000-acre manufacturing site in Hahnville, with more than 100 Dow employees and 1,500 contract workers. Activist hedge funds have increased their combined war chest by more than 25 percent annually since 2009, and now wield more than $120 billion in assets under management. “And the companies themselves that have combined and broken up are competing in a different way, and perhaps no longer competing on certain businesses”. Monsanto withdrew a deal for Syngenta in August. Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index (.FTEU3) ended down 0.5 percent.

Monsanto is the leader in seeds with a 26 percent market share, followed by Dupont Pioneer’s 21 percent. The news sent shares of both industrial giants higher, with Dow Chemical up 11.7% and DuPont up 12.7% at 11:00 a.m. EST.

The two companies, both with strong positions in the agriculture sector, declined to comment on media reports of a possible merger and an official announcement was possible as early as Thursday.

“I’m sure that played a role in the timing of this”, said analyst Robert Scelza with Key Banc Capital Markets.

Edward D. Breen, who recently became DuPont’s chief executive, replacing Ellen Kullman, is no stranger to corporate breakups.