US stocks unfazed by mega deals

Mega deal: A Time Warner logo is seen at a New York City store. AT&T’s proposed US85.4bil takeover of Time Warner is the biggest deal so far this year. – Reuters

NEW YORK: The record dealmaking volume for October did not create a ripple effect lifting US stocks as it has in the past – partly because the mergers, albeit large, were few and far between, bankers and analysts said.

Though acquisitive corporate bosses generated US$329bil worth of takeovers in October, the biggest month for US mergers and acquisitions (M&A) on record, according to Thomson Reuters data, the 615 deals that were announced marked the lowest number of monthly deals since March 2013. The top four deals alone represented over one half the month’s total.