Wall Street: Clash of Titans as Unilever rejects Kraft Heinz's $143 billion offer

Equity markets were caught by surprise when Kraft Heinz Company, the food and beverage giant, slammed Unilever due to a modest $143 billion takeover offer which the Jen & Berry's owner rejected on Friday.

Eventually, if the transaction were to take place, moves the takeover to a decent third-place in history and largest acquisition for a company based in the UK; at what cost Furthermore, the Heinz' team, which included legendary investor Warren Buffet, 3G Capital, and Lazard, announced their interest to continue talks but Unilever seems to choose a different direction for the time being as the financial bid lack substance.

Yesterday's green mood was contagious across major US indexes as the Dow Jones Industrial Average clocked 20,624.05, up +0.02% or +4.28 points, then the always active SP500 banked +0.17% or +3.94 points ending at 2,351.16 and finally, the tech heavyweight Nasdaq punched a decent +0.41% or +23.68 points to settle the score at 5,838.58 on Friday.

Turning to market volatility and leading indicators via yields, the iPath SP500 VIX Short-term Futures or VXX, clocked +0.23% or +0.04 at 17.54 compared to 23.70 at the beginning of January which indicates the level of 'comfort' market participants seem to enjoy lately. On the other hand, US yields experienced decent trading activity that traders visualized on the US dollar Index and US pairs, when the US 10yr treasury yields fell yesterday from 2.46% to 2.41%, down -1.31% on the day or -0.0320, when during last trading session of the week it went as low as -1.82%.

DXY inter-markets: temporary top in place?

On the commodity front, Gold spot ended the week on a positive tone at $1235 and kept the head above water or 100-DMA. Then, Silver added a few up ticks to clock a high at 18.07 but ended near 17.90 as the 'poor man's gold' trades above the 200-DMA. Later, WTI roared at $53 and above the 50-DMA which is now a critical support near $52.70.

The week ahead is focused on two key drivers: when the 'phenomenal tax' may land and 'probability' to witness the impossible possible via a Fed rate hike in March.

Gold vs. WTI vs. 'the almighty' US dollar