MARKET PULSE-Merck & Co, Tyson, Family Dollar, Time

(For more market insights, including options activity, click on ; for the Day Ahead newsletter http://link.reuters.com/mex49s; for the Morning News Call newsletter, http://link.reuters.com/nex49s) U.S. stocks advanced on Monday, boosted by a number of major acquisitions, though gains were slight with key indexes continuing to hover around records. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.23 percent at 16,962.88, the S&P 500 was up 0.27 percent at 1,954.65 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 6.14 points, or 0.14 percent, at 4,327.54

** TIME INC, $22.72, -3.24 pct

** TIME WARNER INC (NYSE: TWX - news) , $69.06, +1.35 pct

Time Inc, home to titles such as People, Sports Illustrated and Time, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange at a time when the U.S. magazines lose readers to digital alternatives. Time Inc is the latest in a series of spinoffs by Time Warner, most notably of AOL Inc (NYSE: AOL - news) and Time Warner Cable Inc, following the disastrous merger of Time Warner and AOL in 2000.

** TYSON FOODS INC (NYSE: TSN - news) , $38.25, -4.66 pct

** HILLSHIRE BRANDS CO, $61.84, +4.96 pct

** PILGRIM'S PRIDE CORP, $24.77, -5.71 pct

Tyson Foods prevailed over Pilgrim's Pride in a bidding war between meat processors over Hillshire Brands (Frankfurt: LEE1.F - news) , with an increased offer valuing the maker of Jimmy Dean sausages at $8.55 billion including debt.

** FAMILY DOLLAR STORES INC (NYSE: FDO - news) , $68.74, +13.56 pct

** DOLLAR GENERAL CORP, $63.74, +9.92 pct

Family Dollar Stores adopted a one-year poison pill with a trigger of 10 percent, two days after activist investor Carl Icahn reported a stake in the company and said he would consider pushing for a merger with Dollar General (Berlin: 7DG.BE - news) .

** ARCOS DORADOS HOLDINGS INC, $10.2, +6.14 pct

BofA Merrill Lynch raised its rating on the world's largest McDonald's franchisee to "buy" from "underperform", according to theflyonthewall.com.

** MERCK (Dusseldorf: 6MK.DU - news) & CO INC, $57.85, +0.00 pct

** IDENIX PHARMACEUTICALS INC (NasdaqGS: IDIX - news) , $24.08, +233.06 pct

** ACHILLION PHARMACEUTICALS INC (NasdaqGS: ACHN - news) , $3.9999, +38.89 pct

** GILEAD SCIENCES INC (NasdaqGS: GILD - news) , $79.34, -3.70 pct

Merck & Co said it would buy Idenix Pharmaceuticals in a deal valued at about $3.85 billion to complement its hepatitis C portfolio.

Shares of Achillion Pharmaceuticals, another maker of hepatitis C drugs, also rose on the news.

Shares of Gilead Sciences the maker of the current market leading hepatitis C treatment, Sovaldi, also fell on the news.

** ANALOG DEVICES INC (NasdaqGS: ADI - news) , $55.61, +5.54 pct

** HITTITE MICROWAVE CORP, $77.98, +28.76 pct

Analog Devices said it would buy Hittite Microwave in a deal valued at $2 billion to strengthen its radio frequency and signal conversion chip offerings.

** MORGAN STANLEY (Berlin: DWD.BE - news) , $32.21, -2.49 pct

** NGL ENERGY PARTNERS LP (NYSE: NGL - news) , $43.35, +3.41 pct

Morgan Stanley is selling its controlling stake in oil pipeline company TransMontaigne Inc to NGL Energy Partners LP for $200 million, essentially ending its long run as the biggest physical oil trader on Wall Street.

** PROGENICS PHARMACEUTICALS INC (NasdaqGS: PGNX - news) , $3.8397, +10.97 pct

U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisers are set to vote this week on whether more clinical trials are needed to assess cardiovascular risk in a class of drugs used to treat opioid-induced chronic constipation.

** CENTRAL GARDEN & PET CO, $8.723, +11.26 pct

** HARBINGER GROUP INC (NYSE: HRG - news) , $12.27, +2.76 pct

Harbinger, the owner of Spectrum Brands (NYSE: SPB - news) and an investor in Central Garden, delivered a letter to the board of the supplier of the pet and garden products to consider a potential sale.

** CANCER GENETICS INC (NasdaqCM: CGIX - news) , $11.7, +3.72 pct

The cancer diagnostics company said it entered into an agreement with British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc (NYSE: AZN - news) to perform complex testing for diagnosis and prognosis of cancer patients in Central America and the Caribbean. The partnership is expected to initially focus on lung cancer trials, Cancer Genetics said on Monday.

** NEUSTAR INC, $24.8, -7.01 pct

Neustar could lose a phone contract to rival Ericsson (Xetra: ERCA.DE - news) , media reports said citing an e-mail made public on a government website. The company routes phone calls and manages databases used by North American telecom carriers. (http://link.reuters.com/byz89v)

** TRAVELCENTERS OF AMERICA LLC (NYSE: TA - news) , $8.76, +7.48 pct

The operator of travel centers along the U.S. interstate highways reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit mainly on account of an income tax benefit.

** RITCHIE BROS AUCTIONEERS INC, $24.42, +5.39 pct

Cantor Fitzgerald raised its rating on the stock to "buy" from "hold", citing the growth in the company's auction proceeds. "Momentum is building in auction proceeds providing us greater confidence that Ritchie Bros. can achieve the higher end of its 2014 guidance and continue accelerating into 2015," analysts at the brokerage said in note to clients.

** PHARMACYCLICS INC (NasdaqGS: PCYC - news) , $98.958, +5.84 pct

The biotechnology company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted its application to broaden the use of its cancer drug, Imbruvica, and set a review date of Oct. 7 for the new indication.

If approved, the drug's label will expand to include improvement in survival without the disease worsening and overall survival in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma, who have received at least one prior therapy.

Imbruvica is currently approved for use in previously treated patients with mantle cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia based on overall response rate.

** MAXIMUS INC (NYSE: MMS - news) , $43.13, -6.40 pct

Raymond James analysts downgraded the company's stock rating to "market perform" from "outperform", saying that after a strong run over the past year, Maximus' earnings momentum will wane in 2015 and growth will moderate as some one-time Affordable Care Act related work abates.

Reston, Virginia-based Maximus provides business processing services to government health and human services agencies in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia.

** AUTOHOME INC (NYSE: ATHM - news) , $34.82, -2.49 pct

The Chinese automobile information website's six-month "lockup" - the period after the initial public offering during which early investors are barred from selling their shares - ended Saturday (Shenzhen: 002291.SZ - news) . (Reporting By Shubhankar Chakravorty in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)