Dow Futures Soaring as BABA Comes to the Big Apple

Dow Futures, September 19, 2014: U.S. markets closed soaring on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index both reaching record levels.

Dow Jones futures today (Friday) were up 63 points. Nasdaq and S&P futures also climbed 13 and 5.25 points respectively. U.K. markets also rallied on news that Scotland voted to stay.

Here are today's top financial stories:

• BABA Bonanza: This morning, e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) will go public, with shares priced at its top-range value of $68. That means the company will raise roughly $21.8 billion, makings its IPO one of the largest public launches in market history. With Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) forced to reduce its stake in Alibaba, there will be a lot of pressure for the company to make a big move with its pending windfall. Yahoo is expected to make up to $9.5 billion on Alibaba's public launch.

[Editor's note: Money Morning is live tweeting BABA stock's debut all day today on our website – you can go here to get in on the action…]

• Merger Mania: Shares of Concur Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: CNQR) soared more than 19% on news the software company had been scooped up by SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) for $8.3 billion. Shares of SAP were down more than 4% in pre-market hours.

• Stepping Down: Shares of JetBlue Airways Corp. (Nasdaq: JBLU) were up roughly 4.50% in pre-market earnings on news that its Chief Executive Officer Jeff Barger plans to depart from the company in February. According to the company's plan, Barger will be replaced by JetBlue's president Robin Hayes.

• No Freedom: Yesterday, Scottish voters had a turnout of 85% to vote on whether they would declare independence from the United Kingdom. Scottish citizens voted 55% in favor of remaining part of the UK, which was a massive sigh of relief for British leaders. Thursday's turnout was the largest since World War II. The vote was critical, as Scotland's two largest banks, Lloyd's Banking Group Ltd. (NYSE: LYG) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Ltd. (NYSE: RBS) had said they planned to relocate to London in the event that their countrymen voted in favor of the independence plan.

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