Stocks Opened Higher on Mergers

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday, amid corporate merger activities and prospects for increased European stimulus. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately climbed 77.20 points, or 0.43%, to 17,078.42. The S&P 500 rose 8.56 points, or 0.43%, to 1,996.96. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 23.96 points, or 0.53%, to 4,562.51.

Burger King (BKW.N) is in talks to acquire Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc (THI.TO) in a deal that would create a fast food powerhouse with a market capitalization of roughly $18 billion.

The Swiss drug maker Roche agreed on Sunday to buy InterMune — which sells a drug to treat a deadly lung disease — for $8.3 billion, as pharmaceutical companies continue to seek new products to bolster their offerings.

Budget pressures at the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division are cutting the number of investigators there to the lowest level in four decades, and officials say the changes are forcing the division to scale back its fight of financial crime.

Amazon.com Inc. is gearing up to more directly challenge Google Inc.’s dominance of the online advertising market, developing its own software for placing ads online that could leverage its knowledge of millions of active Web shoppers.