Despite news that the economy is barely inching forward, stocks scaled new highs, including the first record for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index in more than seven years.
Locally, shares of CDW Corp. leaped after it agreed to a $7.3 billion acquisition by Chicago buyout firm Madison Dearborn Partners.
Investors will be given $87.75 in cash, a 16 percent premium over where the stock was trading before the deal was announced.
CDW, based in Vernon Hills, is a distributor of computer hardware, software and accessories. Its stock finished at $85.07, a gain of 69 percent from a 52-week low of $50.28.
Shares of Navteq Corp., the globally dominant maker of maps used in car navigation systems, jumped the most in seven months after the Chicago- based company said the wireless market might become its largest source of sales.
Navteq got a further boost when an analyst at William Blair & Co. said private equity firms might be interested in acquiring it. Shares ended at $42.57, up 79 percent from a 52- week low of $23.73.
And the stock of Boeing Co. headed skyward after a major Russian air carrier signed a $2.4 billion contract for 15 of the Chicago-based aerospace giant’s new 787 Dreamliner passenger planes, with an option for another 10.
“Today we are making history,” Boeing Vice President Marlin Dailey said in Moscow. “We are very proud to be bringing the 787 Dreamliner to Russia.”
Despite a surge in air travel in Russia, the country has had little luck in producing new, fuel-sipping, modern planes. Meanwhile, its fleet is aging drastically.
Boeing stock ended at $99.83, up 38 percent from a 52-week low of $72.13.
On the downside, the stock of NiSource Inc. fell after the country’s third-largest natural- gas distributor said it is giving up on efforts to sell the electricity business of its Northern Indiana Public Service utility. It said it sees little chance it can boost profits for several years.
NiSource held discussions on the possible sale of the electricity business as part of a previously announced strategic review. The effort to sell the utility was abandoned after the company concluded “that no transaction adequately met all the requirements necessary to proceed,” the Merrillville, Ind.-based company said.
NiSource stock ended at $22.03, off 13 percent from a 52- week high of $25.43.
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wsluis@tribune.com
