Business news with words alcoa+businesses. 11 news.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - U.S. stocks ended higher Monday in a shortened Christmas Eve trading session, aided by flurry of deals which included Alcoa Inc.'s $2.7 billion sale of its packaging and consumer businesses.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks finished higher in Monday's shortened trading session, aided by a flurry of M&A deals that included a $2.7 billion sale by Alcoa Inc. of its packaging and consumer businesses. In preliminary closing figures, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 106 points to 13,555, the S&P 500 Index gained 12 points to end at 1,497 and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 22 points to 2,713, with shares of Apple Inc. approaching the $200-a share mark. Apple's stock ended up 2.8% at $198.80.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks opened higher Monday, with shares of blue-chip index component Alcoa Inc. up more than 1.6% after the aluminum giant agreed to sell its packaging and consumer businesses for $2.7 billion. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 59 points, or 0.4%, at 13,509.39. The broader S&P 500 Index rose 5 points, or 0.3%, to 1,489.06 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 5 points, or 0.2%, to 2,697.17. Trading will end early, at 1 p.m. Eastern in observance of the Christmas holiday.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Stock market futures help broadly steady ahead of a shortened Christmas Eve trading session Monday, with Alcoa Inc. among the stocks in focus after it agreed to sell its packaging and consumer businesses.

RANK Group Ltd, owned by New Zealand's richest man, Graeme Hart, has agreed to buy Alcoa Inc's packaging and consumer businesses for US$2.7 billion in cash to expand in the United States. Alcoa expects to sell the consumer and packaging businesses, which last year generated 10 percent of sales and three percent of after-tax operating income, by the end of the March, the company said. Hart, 52, will gain control of units, including Reynolds Wrap foil in the acquisition. Rank Group, based in Auckland, has made about US$7 billion of acquisitions over two years in the US, New Zealand and Europe to become the world's second-largest drink-carton maker. Last year, Hart bought International Paper Co's beverage-packaging unit for US$500 million and Neuhausen, Switzerland-based SIG Holding AG for US$2 billion. "He's certainly building quite a packaging empire," Stephen Walker, principal of Walker Capital Management Ltd in Auckland, told Bloomberg News. "This extends the

$2.7bn purchase comes eight months after the US aluminium group put the businesses up for sale in bid to focus on metals operations

Alcoa agreed to sell its packaging and consumer businesses to New Zealand's Rank Group for $2.7bn in cash, the latest move by the world's third-largest aluminum producer to focus on its core business

Comapny says it will sell packaging and consumer unit to New Zealand's rank group for $2.7 billion in cash.

Alcoa announced a deal to sell its packaging and consumer businesses to New Zealand's Rank Group for $2.7 billion.

Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. expects to take charges of $845 million as it closes in on the sale of two businesses — packaging and consumer products, and automotive castings — enabling it to focus on new growth opportunities, the company said Thursday.

Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. expects to take charges of $845 million as it closes in on the sale of two businesses — packaging and consumer products, and automotive castings — enabling it to focus on new growth opportunities, the company said Thursday.