General Motors jumps on upgrade, Merck hit with patent lawsuit, Google could face huge tax bill

Here are some of the stocks the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you today.

Merck (MRK) shares are in focus after French rival Sanofi filed a lawsuit claiming the US drug company infringed as many as 10 of its patents, including ones for its blockbuster diabetes treatment Lantus and its insulin delivery device soloSTAR. US-listed shares of Sanofi (SNY) rose on the news.

General Motors (GM) shares were higher in early trading after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to overweight from equal-weight and raised the price target by $8 to $37 a share. Separately, the head of Canada’s auto workers union says thousands of factory workers will strike at two General Motors plants if the two sides are not able to negotiate a new contract by the Monday night deadline. A strike would disrupt supply of engines that go into GM’s sport utility vehicles including the Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade.

Google’s parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) could be hit with a tax bill of more than $400 million for last year alone if the Indonesian government finds it avoided tax payments, according to Reuters.

Avnet (AVT) shares were higher in early trading following news that it’s selling its IT business to Tech Data (TECD) for about $2.6 billion in cash and stock.