Bank deal boosts stocks to a hot start 🔥

US benchmarks rebounded from a down open on Friday to close the session higher. The Dow added 0.4%, and the S&P 500 gained 0.5%. The Nasdaq edged 0.3% higher, and the small-cap Russell 2K outperformed with a 0.8% advance.

Today, futures are in the green in early morning trading. Dow and S&P 500 contracts are up 0.5%.

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🤝🏻 Citizen Bank Buys SVB Assets

First Citizens Bank [FCNCA] has made a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to acquire all of Silicon Valley Bank's deposits, loans, and branches. The locations are scheduled to open for business today under the new ownership.

According to early reports, First Citizens purchased $72 billion worth of assets at a $16.5 billion discount.

First Citizens Bank's parent company is rallying on news of its SVB deal.

The mid-cap regional bank stock announced a deal to acquire a large chunk of the now-defunct Silicon Valley Bank's assets for a steep discount.

First Citizen paid $55.5 billion to acquire $72 billion worth of deposits, branch locations, and other operational assets.

It's currently unclear how the deal will affect shareholders, and the FDIC will maintain control of $90 billion worth of other SVB securities and assets.

FCNCA is up 26.0% on news of this bargain buy, making it one of this morning's top-performing stocks.

My Take: Absolute home-run deal for First Citizens. They just acquired a huge chunk of valuable assets at a discount of nearly 23%. This was a keen move that could really boost FCNCA's earnings in the future.

First Republic Bank is moving higher on news of the First Citizen's deal.

The bank stock rallied as soon as news of FCB's deal to acquire Silicon Valley Bank's assets hit the market.

The deal demonstrates that there's still widespread public and private sector support for the regional banking sector.

Regional bank investors are breathing a sigh of relief, and FRC is getting a boost from the headline. It's currently leading the S&P 500 with a 28.4% gain.

My Take: FRC stock has been all over the place the past few weeks, but it's still trading for well off its previous lows. However, it could be a long time before investors regain confidence in the company and its valuation recovers.

Blackbaud has received a buyout offer, and shares are rallying on the news.

Early this morning, the software firm announced that private equity firm Clearlake Capital has offered to acquire it for $71 per share in cash.

The proposed deal values the company at $3.778 billion and pays a roughly 22.8% premium to BLKB's Friday closing price.

Blackbaud hasn't publicly responded to the offer just yet, but it's expected that the company will undertake an extensive review of the proposal and potential alternatives.

BLKNB is up 20.2% on news of the proposal.

My Take: BLKB is going to give this deal some serious consideration, but there's no guarantee it will go through. If they manage to negotiate a better price, there could be more upside in this trade, but that's a long shot.

Berkshire Grey [BGRY] - Last Close: $1.14

A massive take-private deal is boosting shares of Berkshire Grey.

The intelligent enterprise robot company has agreed to be acquired by Softbank Group [SFTBY] in a $375 million deal that will take the company private.

Under the terms of the deal, Softbank, which is already a major investor in the company, will acquire all remaining shares at $1.40 apiece.

The deal pays a 22.8% premium over BGRY's Friday closing price.

Shares of BGRY are up 18.4% on news of the acquisition, and shares are trading actively in the premarket.

My Take: There's not a lot of upside left on the table after BGRY's early morning rally. If you're not already in this one, you most likely missed the boat.

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