Markets are up after starting the day mixed. The markets have braced themselves for another week of fiscal cliff talks, and could be buoyed by the result of the election in Japan.
At 12:37 PM: S&P: +1.00%, Nasdaq: +1.10%, Dow: +0.68.
Here’s what’s buzzing in the Afternoon:
Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE:S) officially announced that it will acquire the remaining stake of Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR) for $2.97 per share, or $2.2 billion. The deal values Clearwire at about $10 billion. Shares of Clearwire, which had been bid up on speculation of a better offer, dropped as much as 12.46 percent in the afternoon, and were trading around $2.95. Shares of Sprint were down about 0.18 percent.
Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) edged up in the afternoon after the company announced that it sold over 2 million iPhone 5′s on its first weekend in China. Many observers questioned how strong initial iPhone sales would be without a partnership with China Mobile (NYSE:CHL), the country’s largest carrier, but the phone looks like it will be well received anyways based on pre-orders through China Unicom (NYSE:CHU).
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American International Group (NYSE:AIG) is reportedly looking to raise as much as $6.5 billion from the sale of its remaining interest in AIA Group Ltd. A sale would be Asia’s second-largest block offering ever, as AIG looks to consolidate its operations and focus on its American insurance business.
A Big Fine Gets Bigger: Bloomberg reports that the $1 billion fine expected to be levied against UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) by U.S prosecutors could be increased to as much as $1.6 billion. Bankers associated with UBS are accused of being involved in the LIBOR rate-fixing scandal. Charges could be filed as early as this week.
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