CHICAGO — The 159-year-old Chicago Board of Trade found itself the target of a possible bidding war Thursday when electronic futures market IntercontinentalExchange Inc. made a surprise $9.9 billion all-stock bid, threatening its deal to merge with the crosstown Merc.

Investors pushed the shares of parent CBOT Holdings Inc. to a record high in anticipation of a sweetened offer by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.

The unsolicited bid by Atlanta-based ICE, a relative upstart in the futures and commodities industry, comes less than three weeks before CBOT shareholders are scheduled to vote April 4 on an all-Chicago deal. The Merc's parent company and its century-long rival agreed last October to unite and form the world's largest futures exchange, with CME paying $8 billion.

Stocks ride out wholesale inflation spike

NEW YORK — Stocks managed a moderate advance Thursday, staying afloat as signs of strength in corporate takeover activity, jobs and overseas markets allowed investors to stomach a sharp rise in wholesale inflation.

Wall Street still displayed nervousness, however, selling off briefly after former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan rekindled investors' woes about subprime mortgages. The knee-jerk dip was illustrative of how jittery the markets are now, recoiling when reminded that no one yet knows the extent to which weak areas of economy, notably the struggling housing market and hemorrhaging subprime lenders, will hurt overall growth in the months ahead.

Trading was erratic at other points in the session, but most investors on Thursday chose to buy up bargains following a 242-point drop in the Dow Jones industrials on Tuesday and a 57-point recovery on Wednesday that suggested the market is holding above the index's 12,000 mark — at least for now.

Cisco Systems to acquire WebEx for $3.2 billion

SAN FRANCISCO — Cisco Systems has agreed to acquire the online meeting company WebEx Communications for about $3.2 billion in cash, a takeover that furthers Cisco's push beyond its core market for networking gear and into the lucrative arena of business communications.

Cisco Systems Inc., the leading maker of routers and switches that direct data over computer networks, said Thursday it will pay $57 per share of WebEx Inc. That represents a 23 percent premium over WebEx's closing price of $46.20 Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Shares of WebEx soared $10.17, or 22 percent, to close at $56.37 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Cisco shares fell 6 cents to $25.79.

The acquisition has been approved by both boards and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007, Cisco said. Cisco said it expects the transaction to have a neutral effect on its fiscal year 2008 earnings after one-time charges are subtracted. The total purchase price will be about $2.9 billion when factoring in WebEx's $300 million in cash on hand.

Wholesale inflation surges in February

WASHINGTON — Inflation at the wholesale level soared in February, pushed higher by gasoline and other energy prices and the largest increase in food costs in more than three years.

The Labor Department reported that wholesale prices surged 1.3 percent last month. That was the biggest increase since November and more than double the 0.5 percent gain analysts expected.

Cost pressures also showed up in higher prices for cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, appliances and children's toys and games, which rose at the fastest clip in more than two decades.

The core inflation rate, which excludes food and energy, climbed by 0.4 percent, more than forecast and double the January gain.

OPEC targets overproduction, stands by output levels

VIENNA, Austria — OPEC decided Thursday to stick to already agreed-on output levels while paying more attention to curbing overproduction — a decision that could push prices higher by taking up to 700,000 barrels of crude a day off world markets.

OPEC members have generally expressed satisfaction with their oil fetching around $60 a barrel in recent weeks and their decision to stick with the status quo reflected their desire to keep prices around that level.

Output could fall even without newly mandated reductions if ministers implement compliance with cuts agreed on in the past four months.

In meetings in Qatar in October and Nigeria in December, OPEC agreed to take a combined 1.7 million barrels a day off global oil markets as they sought to shore up sagging oil prices and shrink burgeoning inventories.

Greenspan: Mortgage lenders' troubles somewhat confined

BOCA RATON, Fla. — The troubles plaguing lenders of risky mortgages are not likely to spill over into the broader economy unless housing prices see another substantial dip, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday.

Greenspan said that as home prices dipped, "subprime borrowers have not been able to build up enough equity."

If home prices drop in a year, he predicted that could cause the problems to "spill over into other areas."

Mounting concerns about risky mortgages by subprime lenders who provide loans to people with poor credit histories have been making investors jittery. Those fears prompted a sharp drop on Wall Street earlier this week and they contributed to a worldwide stock meltdown on Feb. 27, where the Dow Jones industrials suffered a 416-point plunge.

Bear Stearns reports profit rise

NEW YORK — Bear Stearns Cos., Wall Street's largest underwriter of mortgage securities, on Thursday reported first-quarter profit rose 8 percent despite turmoil in the subprime lending sector.

Its profit after paying preferred dividends rose to $548.5 million, or $3.82 per share, for the three months ended Feb. 28 from $508.7 million, or $3.54 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $2.48 billion from $2.19 billion last year.

Wall Street expected earnings of $3.80 per share on revenue of $2.49 billion, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Its shares rose $2.81, or 1.9 percent, to close at $148.10 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bear Stearns, the fifth-biggest investment bank on Wall Street, said the recent meltdown in the subprime mortgage industry had a minor impact on its performance. It not only originates loans, but packages loans into securities and sells them to investors.

GM to target liabilities in contract talks

DETROIT — General Motors Corp. will try to reduce its staggering employee and retiree healthcare liabilities in upcoming contract talks with the United Auto Workers, according to a government regulatory filing Thursday.

The world's largest automaker also said it has determined its internal financial controls are ineffective and that it is working to fix them. It has said previously that federal authorities are investigating its financial reporting.

The comments came in its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission only a day after its delayed release of financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2006. The earnings report was delayed as its sorted throught accounting issues dating to 2002.

GM said in the annual report its obligation for post-retirement health care and other benefits was $68 billion at the end of last year and could grow on a global basis. It spent $4.8 billion on health care in the U.S. last year, and expects that will drop only slightly to $4.7 billion this year.

Caremark to decide between CVS, Express Scripts bids

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After months of arguments from rival bidders, Caremark shareholders will decide Friday whether to accept the CVS offer favored by managers or hold out for the chance to be taken over by Express Scripts.

As expected, CVS Corp. shareholders on Thursday approved a stock and cash buyout valued at $26.5 billion. Analysts think CVS may have the edge over Express Scripts Inc., whose bid is slightly higher at $27.2 billion but hasn't yet passed antitrust scrutiny.

The CVS bid has already been approved by the FTC.

Drugstore chain CVS said its shareholders overwhelmingly approved the deal, with a preliminary count showing 91.8 percent of the shares voted were cast in favor.

Caremark shareholders are set to vote on the proposed CVS acquisition in Nashville, where Caremark is based.

The vote had to be delayed twice because of a lawsuit by a pension fund shareholder that claimed Caremark executives struck a bargain that favored company insiders over regular shareholders.

Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq rise

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 26.28, or 0.22 percent, to 12,159.68. The Dow is 627 points below its closing high of 12,786.64, reached Feb. 20.

Broader stock indicators were also higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 5.10, or 0.37 percent, to 1,392.28, and the Nasdaq composite index advanced 6.96, or 0.29 percent, to 2,378.70.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery fell 61 cents to settle at $57.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April Brent crude on the ICE Futures exchange in London slipped 8 cents to $60.98 a barrel.