US STOCKS-M&A boosts Wall Street on deals from Xerox, Abbott

                                

                                
 * Abbot to buy Solvay's drugs unit for $6.6 billion
                                
 * Xerox will acquire ACS for about $6.4 billion
                                
 * Dow index headed for best quarter since 1998
                                
 * For up-to-the-minute market news, click [STXNEWS/US]
(Updates to morning trading)
                                
 By Rodrigo Campos
                                
 NEW YORK, Sept 28 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks jumped on Monday
as more merger and acquisition activity in the last days of the
third quarter encouraged investors following three sessions of
losses.
                                
 Xerox Corp <XRX.N> will buy Affiliated Computer Services
Inc <ACS.N> for $6.4 billion in a cash-and-stock deal that
expands the copier company into technology outsourcing and data
management. For details see [ID:nN2863430].
                                
 Xerox shares fell 13.4 percent to $7.77 while ACS shot up
16.7 percent to $55.06.
                                
 Abbott Laboratories <ABT.N> said it would buy the drugs
unit of Solvay <SOLB.BR> in a $6.6 billion deal, giving Abbott
full control of its Belgian development partner's cholesterol
treatments and exposure to emerging markets. [ID:nLS426471].
                                
 Abbott stock rose 3.7 percent to $49.11.
                                
 "Deal announcements are helping the market off to a good
start, especially as we had a bit of selling off last week,"
said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook
Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.
                                
 "People were waiting for a time to get in, and now, they
have it."
                                
 With Monday's gains, the Dow Jones industrial average is up
more than 15 percent for the quarter so far, which would make
it its best such period since the fourth quarter of 1998.
                                
 A Jewish holiday observed Monday and the end of the third
quarter two days later could translate into thin volume and
volatility as fund managers reposition their assets amid fewer
market participants, investors said.
                                
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 118.28 points,
or 1.22 percent, to 9,783.47. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index
<.SPX> gained 14.76 points, or 1.41 percent, to 1,059.14. The
Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> jumped 35.48 points, or 1.70
percent, to 2,126.40.
                                
 GenTek Inc <GETI.O> shares soared nearly 40 percent to
$37.75 after the maker of specialty chemicals and vehicle
engine components said it agreed to a takeover by a subsidiary
of private equity firm American Securities LLC for $411 million
in cash. [ID:nN2867763].
                                
 The Dutch biotechnology firm Crucell <CRCL.AS> <CRXL.O>
said Johnson & Johnson <JNJ.N> bought 14.6 million new Crucell
shares for over $400 million as part of a flu vaccine
development deal [ID:nLS661406].
                                
 China Unicom <0762.HK>, that country's No. 2 mobile
carrier, said Apple Inc's <AAPL.O> popular iPhone would be sold
in China starting in October at a retail price of about $730.
[ID:nHKG249644]. France Telecom's <FTE.PA> Orange also said it
would sell iPhones later this year.
                                
 Apple shares edged 1.3 percent higher.
                                
 The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said its National
Activity Index was minus 0.90 in August, down from a revised
minus 0.56 in July, but its three-month moving average of
economic indicators improved for the seventh straight month to
its highest level since June 2008. [ID:nNYS005442]
 (Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Padraic
Cassidy)