The BHP-Rio Tinto saga is heating up again, with a growing consensus among investors that BHP will issue a sweetened offer by next Wednesday’s “put up or shut up” deadline set by Australia’s Britain’s Takeover Panel. Rio Tinto shares surged 7.6 percent and BHP climbed 2.6 percent. “I just expect them to come back with a definite offer and get the ball rolling. And their first offer won’t be their last offer,” said Warwick Cumming, deputy head of equities at Tyndall Investment Management, which holds shares in both companies.

Surprising absolutely no one, BNP Paribas has confirmed that it is indeed weighing a takeover bid for its weakened compatriot Societe Generale, laid low by a rogue trading scandal. “We are studying it because all Europe’s banks are studying it,” said a spokesman. Of course, all of Europe’s banks except the French ones would have to overcome the government’s determination to fend off foreign “predators.”

Tata Group isn’t about to stop its acquistion binge. Already on the verge of buying Jaguar from Ford, the Indian conglomerate’s Tata Chemicals unit has agreed to acquire U.S. soda ash maker General Chemical Industrial Products for $1.005 billion from Harbinger Capital Partners.