US markets are mostly positive as investors were excited by the abundance of corporate deal news. The DJIA got as high as 16,500 but has tapered off since. Nasdaq Composite Index has sold off after it hit an intraday high of 4,111 at 10:30 AM. The S&P 500 is the same story as it has gone negative after an intraday high of 1877. The CBOE’s VIX is up over 2%. Bank of America (BAC) down about 5% after the bank had an “overstatement of its regulatory capital amounts and ratios”. This resulted in the bank suspending its 4 cent dividend increase and $4 billion share buyback program. Safe to say shareholders are furious. Pfizer (PFE) is up almost 5% after the company said it has renewed takeover talks with AstraZeneca (AZN). The proposed deal is said to be valued at about $100 billion. In a presentation to investors this morning, Pfizer offered a look at what a Pfizer-AstraZeneca combination could look like. Forest Laboratories (FRX) announced it plans to buy Furiex Pharmaceuticals (FURX) for up to $1.46 billion. FURX is up over 28% on the news. The deal is projected to close in the second or third quarter of this year. Susser Holdings (SUSS) shares up a whopping 38% after Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) announced its plans to acquire Susser in a deal valued at around $1.8 billion. Charter Communications (CHTR) is up over 7% after a deal was announced that Comcast (CMCSA) will divest 3.9 million subscribers to Charter in order to help the Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal get approval by regulators. Shares of top department store retail companies are up with J.C. Penney (JCP) leading the way up over 6%. Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD) is up 2%, Kohl’s Corp (KSS) is up over 1.5%, Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN) is up 1% and Macy’s (M) is up .7%.