Global Rally Shines on Wall Street

The stock market rallied Monday, working off some of last week's pressures on the coattails of strong overnight trading sessions in Asia and Europe and of approximately $20 billion of merger and acquisition announcements.

U.S. M&A activity is running at the second-fastest-ever pace year-to-date, up 15% from 2006 levels, says Richard Peterson, analyst at Thomson Financial. "It looks like this quarter is headed for a $400 billion-plus quarter ... better than $4.4 billion a day in deals, or an average of $185 million every hour 24-seven," he adds.

Europe's enthusiasm for a merger between banks Barclays(BCS Quote) and ABN Amro(ABN Quote) spilled over to U.S. shores. ABN jumped 14% while Barclays slipped 0.28% on the news. ...