Wall Street Starts the Week Higher

Investors returned from the holiday weekend well rested and ready to purchase shares. Wall Street advanced on Tuesday as takeover and acquisition news poured in. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 56.07 points to finish the trading session off at 9,494.62. A more than 4% spike in oil prices and gold prices that briefly topped $1,000 gave a lift to the influential commodities sector. Shares of Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) were a couple of the biggest Dow gainers. A selloff in the financial sector slowed down advances and prevented market indices from reaching new 2009 highs. Optimism that a period of mergers and acquisitions could resume added momentum to the session. Kraft (KFT), Cadbury (CBY), and Disney (DIS) were some of the biggest names mentioned in the M&A discussions. In other news, leaders from the world's 20 biggest economies agreed to continue providing stimulus to support the global recovery. Treasury prices were mixed, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year note down to 3.43%.

News Sparking Headlines

U.S. investors returned from their Labor Day weekend to some merger and acquisition news. First up, Kraft Foods, Inc. (KFT) made a $16.7 billion bid for Cadbury (CBY). The deal was quickly rejected by the British maker of dairy milk chocolate. Walt Disney Co. (DIS), who was just in the news for purchasing Marvel Entertainment (MVL), scooped up Chicago-based videogame developer Wideload Games for an undisclosed amount. Merger mania may not be quite in full swing, but the pace of deal-making is definitely showing signs of coming back to life after nearly a year.

Cadbury's Kraft Sugar Rush Overdone

Video -- The Return of Mergers & Acquisitions

The United States has lost its place as the world's most competitive economy. The World Economic Forum today released its annual rankings of global economic competitiveness and Switzerland knocked the United States out of its No. 1 spot. Maybe it shouldn't be surprising, but it still comes as a shock to hear that the United States fell to second place.

Gold prices finally broke the $1,000 an ounce mark for the first time in nearly 18 months. Demand for the precious metal has been surging for weeks now, so investors were expecting the price to reach the milestone soon. With its recent advances, could gold prices be heading to $2,000 an ounce?

Video -- Bullish on Gold

What's Behind the Gold Price Surge?

Lower hog prices and noncash charges for farm-asset impairment were cited as the reasons behind Smithfield Foods Inc.'s (SFD) bigger-than-expected first quarter loss . The world's biggest pork processor and hog producer said it lost $107.7 million during the first quarter.

Fast food giant McDonald's (MCD) lost an eight-year trademark battle against a Malaysian curry restaurant after the country's highest court allowed the small eatery to call itself McCurry Restaurant.

Valero Energy Corp (VLO) announced a series of initiatives designed to improve profitability at the company's under-performing operations. The nation's largest independent refiner said it will shut some of its East Coast and Caribbean refining operations and cut up to 950 jobs.

Other Juicy Tidbits

With all the controversy surrounding the health care debate, it's hard to separate fact from fiction. So many numbers have been thrown out there that many Americans don't know how much this will really cost. Here are some of the myths versus numeric reality .

Next Tuesday will mark the one year anniversary of Lehman Brothers' untimely demise. Richard Fuld knows all too well that he's the poster boy for the meltdown that hit Wall Street a year ago. Now the ex-Lehman Chairman is playing the victim . Fuld is confident that he can handle the second-round of criticism that will ensue as the one year anniversary quickly approaches.

1 Year Later : Wall Street's Acting Like Wall Street Again

Warren Buffett: The Billionaire Who Didn't Panic

College students may recognize some new changes as they go back and forth to class. Those tables full of goodies and credit card applications will soon disappear. How do college students build credit history as rules change?