Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT): After last week's success with their gout drug, these shares haven't stopped rising. They reached a new high of $21.36 against 52-week low of $10.58.

Trane Inc. (NYSE: TT): A nice big buy-out from Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited (NYSE: IR) sent shares up to $45.27 from 52-week low of $32.09.

Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE: VAR): The FDA approved new proton scanning product. The stock Traded up to $52.05 from 52-week low of $37.30.

Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: CCE): Still moving up after last week's strong forecast. Hit $26.93, up from 52-week low of $18.78.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

With the credit crunch and the cooling of private equity, the M&A space has been fairly meager lately. But today, we got some good news (at least for deal junkies) -- Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR) has agreed to pay $10.1 billion for Trane (NYSE: TT).

Ingersoll-Rand, founded in 1871, is a major diversified industrial company, with brands like Club Car golf cars, Hussmann stationary refrigeration equipment, and Schlage locks. And with the Trane deal, the company will boost its large climate control business, making it the #2 player behind United Technologies.

Funny enough, it seems that Trane was trying to market itself to private equity buyers by selling off divisions and streamlining divisions. But of course, such a company can also be attractive to a strategic buyer – especially as global markets remain highly competitive.

With the Trane deal, Ingersoll-Rand will have $17 billion in revenues and $2 billion in EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes).

Yet, Wall Street is a bit skeptical, with Ingersoll-Rand's stock price down 7%. Trane's stock, on the other hand, is up 23%.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher opening Friday on Wall Street, amid speculation that technology stocks would rise on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s strong earnings report late Thursday. Optimism was tempered on expectations that the monthly consumer confidence survey due Friday morning will show a declining economic outlook.

Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost just 3.33, ending a volatile trading session that saw the index swing as low as far as 100 points down. The Nasdaq Composite Index fared worse, falling 23.90, or 0.86%, to 2,750.86, while the S&P slipped 1.48 to 1,514.40.

The University of Michigan will release final consumer confidence figures for October at 10 this morning. The monthly survey is expected to show Americans more pessimistic about the nation's economic future.

Troubled Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) will report third-quarter results this morning. Analysts expect the top mortgage lender to post losses of $1.26 per share, though expectations vary widely.

Trucking group Arkansas Best Corp. (NASDAQ: ABFS) and industrial conglomerate Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR) are among other companies reporting earnings Friday.

Abroad, stocks headed higher in Asia, with Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng indexes rising. Stocks were flat in early European trading.

Microsoft reported first-quarter earnings after the market close Thursday, posting a 23 percent rise that exceeding analysts' expectations. The software giant raised its forecasts for the year, citing sales of Windows Vista and its new Xbox 360 game Halo 3.

Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) shares advanced overseas on reports that Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal discussed merger potential with Wachovia (NYSE: WB) without consulting Merrill's board of directors.

Ingersoll-Rand Co. Ltd. (NYSE: IR) stock is falling today after economic data was released that showed growth in the service sector is slowing but still positive. On top of that, a quick look at insider trading for IR over the past three months shows that insider selling has picked up over the past few weeks, indicating a bearish attitude from within the company. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on IR.

After hitting a one-year high of $56.66 in July, the stock has struggled against resistance in the mid-$50's. This morning, IR opened at $54.03. So far today the stock has hit a low of $51.79 and a high of $54.15. As of 11:05, IR is trading at $52.89, down $1.40 (-2.6%). The chart for IR looks neutral but improving, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a November bear-call credit spread above the $60 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 4.2% return in 7 weeks as long as IR is below $60 at November expiration. Ingersoll-Rand would have to rise by more than 14% before we would start to lose money.

Longleaf Funds, a long-term track record of excellent results, was featured in Barron's mutual fund section over the weekend. What is Mason Hawkins investing in? His largest position is in Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) equaling 7.6% of holdings.

Japan was also a big theme with investments in NipponKoa Insurance, Olympus, Nikko Cordial, being all top holdings. Other Asian holdings included Chueng Kong and Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (NYSE: FFH).

Mexico-based Cemex Sab De CV (NYSE: CX) also topped the list along with European holdings Renault and Nestle.

Regarding U.S. holdings, in addition to Dell, Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited (NYSE: IR) was at the top of the list.

One theme was certain, Hawkins is allocating a lot more of his capital outside the United States. Prior to this decade, Longleaf and Hawkins were not big international investors.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The environmental services sector, the machinery and capital goods sector and several bank holding companies were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Credit Suisse initiated shares of Allied Waste Industries Inc (NYSE: AW), Republic Services Inc (NYSE: RSG) and Waste Management Inc (NYSE: WMI) with Outperform ratings and a $16 target, $35 target and $45 target, respectively.
• Bernstein initiated the machinery and capital goods sector, initiating shares of Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT) and Illinois Tool Works Inc (NYSE: ITW) with Outperform ratings and a $100 target and $68 target, respectively and Deere & Company (NYSE: DE), Eaton Corporation (NYSE: ETN), Ingersoll-Rand Company Ltd (NYSE: IR) and Parker-Hannifin Corporation (NYSE: PH) with Market Perform ratings.
• Sandler initiated shares of Preferred Bank Los Angeles CA (NASDAQ: PFBC) and UCBH Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: UCBH) with Buy ratings and shares of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ: CATY) and East West Bancorp, Inc (NASDAQ: EWBC) with Hold ratings.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Golfsmith International Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: GOLF) was initiated at Wedbush with a Buy rating and $8.75 target, as the firm believes the company is an attractive growth story and buyout candidate.
• Pharmasset Inc (NASDAQ: VRUS) was initiated with a Buy rating and $12 target at Banc of America, as the firm believes Clevudine has the potential to be best in class for the treatment of the hepatitis B virus.
• Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) was initiated with an Outperform rating and $40 target at Piper Jaffray.

Many investors might not immediately recognize the name Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE:IR) but most would recognize its products. Headquartered in Bermuda to take advantage of corporate tax savings, Ingersoll-Rand celebrated its 100th year anniversary of listing on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2006. In a recent interview in NYSE Magazine, CEO Herbert Henkel stated that Ingersoll-Rand reported revenues of well over $10 billion in 2006, with operating profits in excess of $1.5 billion. Profit margins are currently approximately 13.6%. Ingersoll-Rand has transformed itself from a supplier for construction and mining industries into a diversified industrial manufacturer in five business sectors.

1. Climate-control technology through its Thermo-King brand. Sales in this sector totaled $90-$100 million in 2006.

2. Compact vehicle technologies including Club golf carts.

3. Construction technologies, specifically the Bobcat skid-steer loader.

4. Industrial technologies, including fix-it services offered through its Hussman International unit. Fix-it service revenues accounts for 21% of total company revenue, just over $2 billion in 2006. CEO Henkel forecasts this sector will grow to over 30% of total company revenue within 5 years.

5. Security technologies, specifically its Schlage locks brand. This sector accounts for 20% of total company revenues.

Ingersoll-Rand is pursuing an ambitious strategy to expand into global emerging markets, especially India, China and Russia, where sales are forecast to grow 20-25% per year for the next few years. In India, Ingersoll-Rand has introduced Thermo King refrigeration units on trucks, thus helping to reduce fresh food harvest loss from 60% to 5%. Ingersoll-Rand is spending $175 million to build a manufacturing plant in the Czech Republic in order to expand in the southern Europe market. Ingersoll-Rand spent approximately $400 million in acquisitions in 2006, including security-device makers in India, China and Italy.

In the news recently, Swedish truck maker Volvo announced it agreed to buy Ingersoll-Rand's road construction equipment division for $1.3 billion. This would allow Volvo to expand its base of operations in the U.S. The Ingersoll-Rand division generated $850 million in revenue in 2006. Shares of Ingersoll-Rand stock closed unchanged on 6 March at $42.99.

The past few years, Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited (NYSE: IR) has been enjoying the benefits of a booming housing market. Its construction, security, industrial technologies, and compact vehicles divisions all tend to make money when house construction is booming, and the stock price has risen over the past couple years. These are mostly cyclical businesses, so there have been plenty of ups and downs, but the general trajectory has been up.

But the past few months haven't been as good, and the stock has lost almost 25% of its value. The third-quarter results were also down from the second quarter, and net income was down from the previous three quarters. IR was particularly hard hit by the decline in sales of its Bobcat loaders. This was almost certainly due to the slowing housing market, although there is usually more of a lag time before the impact of a housing slump is felt so strongly by a company like Bobcat.

It's going to be interesting to see how IR weathers the economy over the next couple of years. The company has been diversifying to avoid being hit by this kind of slowdown, and so it may come out okay. But there's another reason to be careful here, which is the tax issue. With the Democrats now in power we may see some regulation that prevents American corporations from moving to Bermuda to avoid corporate taxes. If this does occur, it could put a serious dent in IR's net income. There is also some asbestos litigation looming, as well as some legacy retiree costs left over from a division (Dresser-Rand) the company sold.

On the whole, I think this is a well-run company that is doing the right things to avoid being hit too hard by the housing slowdown. But I'd approach with caution.

Type of stock: A construction and mostly heavy industries company in a cyclical business that may be hit hard by the housing slump.

Price target: At $38, this stock is close to its 52-week low and it just reported a weak third quarter. I'd wait and see how the fourth quarter goes, or wait for a serious dip into the low $30s before feeling comfortable with this one.

Hilary Kramer is a financial editor and money coach for AOL and an authority on investing. Visit her at www.hilarykramer.com.