Facebook Deal, Factory Data Raise Stocks (Bloomberg)
Facebook purchased messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion today, and manufacturing data gave investors confidence in the economy, resulting in U.S. stocks rising for the day. “The underlying strength of the U.S. consumer, of U.S. corporations, is still there,” James Liu, a Chicago-based global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds, said. “On the emerging markets side, the question is whether there is contagion for the U.S. market. And I think the answer that we’ve seen is no.”
