>>> US Gapping Up

Gapping up

In reaction to strong earnings/guidance: CMTL +6.4%, DIOD +4.7%, ABM +4.5%, TOL +3.6%, LL +1.2%, BURL +0.5%, (light volume), HITK +0.2%, (light volume).

M&A related: VTNC +6.1% (Vitran to be acquired by Manitoulin Transport for $6.00 per share), TI +4.5% (Telecom Italia not considering breakup of TIM Participacoes, according to reports ), TBOW (Trunkbow enters into merger agreement for 'going private' transaction for $1.46/share).

Select Brazil related names showing strength: CIG +9.8%, GFA +4.7%, PBR +1.3%.

Select metals/mining stocks trading higher: AG +2%, GDX +1.8%, NEM +1.7%, AU +1.7%, GFI +1.7%, GG +1.6%, SLV +1.5%, AUY +1.3%, ABX +1.2%, GOLD +0.2%.

Other news: GERN +16.8% (Geron seeing some volatility in after hours trading; co presented data on imetelstat at ASH and is scheduled to host an analyst and investor meeting; upgraded to Buy at Needham), NAVB +14.8% (FDA grants fast track designation to Navidea Biopharmaceuticals' Lymphoseek for sentinel lymph node detection in patients with head and neck cancer ), SYN +12% (Synthetic Biologics and Intrexon (XON) initiate Development of Novel Biologics for a Subset of Patients Suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome ), RMBS +7.9%/ MU +0.3% (Rambus and Micron sign license agreement), DRWI +7.8% (continued strength), NURO +6.7% (to partner with Omron Medical Devices for Distribution of NC-stat DPNCheck in China), CTIC +4.4% (presents interim results from Phase 2 Tosedostat Trial in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome), HL +4.2% (still checking), PLUG +4.2% (continued strength), LULU +2.9% (appoints Laurent Potdevin as CEO), ARWR +2.7% (presents Phase 1 Data on ARC-520 at HepDART 2013 -- New data including pharmacokinetics (PK) and adverse event (AE) attribution presented today in a poster and in an oral presentation tomorrow, support the previous findings that ARC-520 appears to be generally safe and well-tolerated at all six dose levels studied), ACI +2.6% (has begun operating its longwall mining system), IRM +2.5% (discloses it entered into a REIT Status Protection Rights Agreement), STM +2.3% (still checking), EVTC +2% (announces commencement of public offering of 15,287,473 shares of its common stock by selling stockholders and concurrent repurchase of its common stock), SODA +1.3% (following late spike), MED +1% (announces it has completed repurchase 786k shares of common stock under 1.125 mln share authorization at average price of $25.46), HON +0.7% (announces Major Investments to Increase HFO-1234yf Production in the United States), PXD +0.5% (still checking), BA +0.5% (WSJ discusses Boeing's (BA) tactics to lower its taxes), GM +0.4% (Treasury sold its remaining stake), TWC +0.4% (Time Warner Cable and Charter (CHTR) execs are in no rush for deals, according to reports), YHOO +0.3% (to give more details on revenue composition, according to reports), NAT +0.3% (issues latter to shareholders; says 'Bright spots on the horizon are the strong tendencies we see in global ton-mile demand '), ENDP +0.2% (receives FDA 510(k) clearance of the RetroArc Retropubic Sling System for treatment of female stress urinary incontinence), KO +0.2% (plans to introduce low calorie Coke, according to reports )

Analyst comments: HAWK +9.8% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup), RLYP +5.6% (initiated with an Overweight at Morgan Stanley, initiated with a Outperform at Wedbush), ARIA +4.9% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel), NVMI +1.4% (initiated with a Buy at Canaccord), DDD +1.3% (initiated with a Buy at Deutsche Bank), OSIS +1.1% (Sell-off is overdone; risk of debarment is low -- The Benchmark Company ), SSYS +1% (initiated with a Buy at Deutsche Bank), JCI +1% (upgraded to Top Pick at RBC Capital Mkts; tgt $61), RDS.A +0.6% (upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JP Morgan), PKI +0.5% (upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie ), URI +0.4% (upgraded to Top Pick at RBC Capital Mkts), HAR +0.1% (upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo).

>>> Celesio is trading below offer price on Elliott comments

Elliott Rejects McKesson Offer for Celesio, Suggests Breakup

Paul Singer’s Elliott Management to reject McKesson’s tender offer for outstanding shrs, convertible bonds of Celesio, Elliott says in statement.
  • Says bid substantially undervalues Celesio, doesn’t provide a “fair deal”
  • Says if McKesson paid a fairer price, could still benefit from accretive deal; estimates each incremental euro offered per Celesio shr would only reduce accretion amount by 3c
  • Suggests alternative to maximize investor value would be to sell Celesio wholesale business to one buyer and pharmacy business to another
  • NOTE: Dec. 5, McKesson offered EU23/shr for Celesio or EU3.9b, including debt EU6.1b
    • Bid terms include minimum acceptance threshold of 75% on a fully diluted basis
    • McKesson currently holds ~50.51% of Celesio voting rights (Franz Haniel stake)
    • Elliott says it holds over 25% of voting rights

(BFW) Elliott Capital Says McKesson’s Celesio Bid Too Low, Dj Says

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

BFW 12/10 12:43 *ELLIOTT CAPITAL SAYS MCKESSON’S CELESIO BID TOO LOW, DJ SAYS

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Elliott Capital Says McKesson’s Celesio Bid Too Low, Dj Says 2013-12-10 12:48:26.542 GMT

By Joshua Fineman Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Elliott Capital not satisfied with McKesson’s takeover offer for Celesio, DJ said, citing people familiar. * Elliott considers breakup of Celesio to be a better deal * NOTE: Oct. 24: McKesson offered to buy Celesio for EU23-shr {NSN MV5SJO6JIJUO <go>} * NOTE: Nov. 26, Celesio said Elliott held 25.16% voting rights on Nov. 19; {NSN MWVFK36JTSEW <go>}

Link to Company News:{CLS1 GR <Equity> CN <GO>} Link to Company News:{MCK US <Equity> CN <GO>}

For Related News and Information: First Word scrolling panel: {FIRST<GO>} First Word newswire: {NH BFW<GO>}

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Fineman at +1-212-617-8953 or jfineman@bloomberg.net

>>>US Early premarket gappers

Early premarket gappers

Gapping up: GERN +16.8%, SYN +12%, CIG +9.8%, RMBS +7.9%, ABM +7.6%, NURO +6.7%, CMTL +6.4%, GFA +4.7%, DIOD +4.7%, TI +4.5%, CTIC +4.4%, HL +4.2%, PLUG +4.2%, TOL +3.6%, LULU +2.9%, ARWR +2.7%, ACI +2.6%, IRM +2.5%, STM +2.3%, GFI +1.7%, GG +1.6%, SLV +1.5%, SODA +1.3%, AUY +1.3%, PBR +1.3%, ABX +1.2%, MED +1%, LL +1%,AZO +0.8%, PXD +0.5%, BA +0.5%, GM +0.4%,

Gapping down: PBY -12%, ALOG -11.5%, IEP -6.3%, GASS -5.8%, TA -5.4%, ARCC -3.8%, DAR -3.7%, PF -3.5%, SEAS -2.8%, ALU -2.2%, NXPI -2%, EVTC -1.9%, TAM -1.5%, FNSR -1.3%, CASY -1.2%, RL -0.7%

WSJ :U.S., Israel Step Up Pressure on Germany Over Looted Art

U.S., Israel Step Up Pressure on Germany Over Looted Art

BERLIN—The U.S. and Israel are stepping up pressure on Germany to overhaul the way it handles Jewish heirs' claims for the return of art seized by the Nazis.
American and Israeli officials have begun lobbying Germany to make its overall policy on art restitution faster and more transparent—broadening the focus beyond the recent, high-profile case of 1,400 works found in a Munich apartment to include collections in German museums as well.

Many prominent people in the international art world have long said that Germany's procedures on art restitution are languid and opaque.
Claims on two paintings by Bernardo Bellotto, an 18th-century Italian artist, and on works by the German Expressionist Max Beckmann illustrate the problem. In both cases, lawyers for the heirs say they have been stymied by the refusal by German officials to submit to mediation.
The dispute has caused acute embarrassment in Germany, a country that prides itself on confronting its Nazi past—and its close ties to the U.S. and Israel. The relationship with Washington has already been frayed in recent months by German complaints about U.S. spying activities and U.S. criticism of Germany's economic model.
Germany's government office for restitution claims, known as the BADV, didn't return repeated calls and emails seeking comment. A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel declined to comment.
The diplomatic pressure began after it emerged last month that German authorities had kept secret for nearly two years their discovery in a Munich apartment of some 1,400 artworks, many of which had been seized by the Nazis before and during World War II.
Now Germany is being criticized for failing to codify its international commitments on giving back Nazi-seized art, and for what critics charge is a lack of transparency from those tasked with processing restitution claims.
"No one can have a fair restitution-claims process without fair access to information," Stuart Eizenstat, the U.S. State Department's special adviser on Holocaust issues, said in an interview Monday.
He called on Germany to change its domestic regulations to uphold its international commitments on art restitution, a message that U.S. diplomats are also delivering to Berlin, according to U.S. officials.
An Israeli foreign ministry official said that his country is pressing Germany in separate talks to make its restitution proceedings more transparent. Israel is concerned that German museums could be "hiding" information about the provenance of valuable works, the official said.
Israel doesn't rule out asking for three-way talks with the U.S. and Germany if more transparency isn't achieved, the foreign-ministry official said.
In the latest incidents, the state-owned museums and Germany's government have declined to mediate the claims through the so-called Limbach Commission, an official German body tasked with handling Jewish families' claims to artworks held by German museums.
U.S. and Israeli officials say the German stance shows the need for changes to the country's laws.
They say the laws don't fulfill the Washington Principles on the return on Nazi-seized art, which the German government signed in 1998.
Those principles require rapid disclosure and return of or compensation for works that were wrongly taken from people persecuted by the Nazis.
Other countries, including Austria and Russia, have enshrined the Washington Principles in their national laws. Austria's commission on art restitution, set up in 1998, has processed about 300 cases involving art-restitution claims.
The Limbach Commission has processed seven cases since its creation in 2003. Claimants' groups complain that, unlike in other countries, the German commission doesn't explain the reasoning behind its rulings, and can't compel museums to accept its mediation.
The Limbach Commission's head, art historian Jutta Limbach, declined requests for an interview. Another member of the commission said Ms. Limbach had instructed members "never to talk to the outside."
Historians say the Bellotto paintings, estimated today to be worth about $20 million each, were sold under duress in 1938 from the collection of Jewish entrepreneur Max Emden to a Nazi dealer, who was scouting art for Hitler's planned "Führermuseum" in Linz, Austria.
German law presumes all art sales by Jews to the Nazis to have been under duress.
The BADV is declining to go before the Limbach Commission to discuss the case with Mr. Emden's heirs, saying the Washington Principles aren't binding and therefore can't be used to compel it to accept mediation.
"The Federal Republic's legally nonbinding self-commitment…is not aimed at subjecting the relevant regulations enacted by the [German] legislature to corrections," a BADV official wrote to Mel Urbach, a New York lawyer for the Emden family, in late November, in a letter seen by The Wall Street Journal.
The BADV declined to comment on the letter.
Mr. Eizenstat said in the interview that such thinking "would make a mockery" of the international norms that Germany has signed up to.
"If the Washington Principles are irrelevant because of German law, why did they bother signing them?" Mr. Eizenstat asked.
The official's letter to Mr. Urbach also asserted Germany's ownership of the works and declined the Emden family's settlement offer in which Germany would keep one Bellotto and the heirs would get the other one back.
The Emden family has been asking Germany to take the case to the Limbach Commission since 2004. Max Emden's daughter-in-law, Ximena Emden, who died this year at 99 years old, worried that she would never see the family's paintings restituted, other family members say.
"They are waiting for our generation to disappear," said Max's grandson Juan Carlos Emden, 66 years old.
Munich's prestigious Pinakothek der Moderne museum is also declining to go before the Limbach Commission to discuss six Beckmann paintings that once belonged to leading Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim.
His heirs say they were sold without his permission during the war, after he had fled Germany, and have been asking the Munich museum, where the paintings ended up, to go before the Limbach Commission since 2010.
The museum sees "no need" to do so, because the Flechtheim family has "no receipt" documenting a "forced seizure" of the works, a museum spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Journal.
If the Moderne Pinakothek has "such a clear case, why don't they go before the Limbach Commission?" says Michael Hulton, a San Francisco-based descendant of Mr. Flechtheim.