10:00PM Frankfurt, 4:00PM New York, 8:00AM Sydney – HP agreed to buy EDS for $25 per share or at 33% premium from the closing price at the end of the last week.

Global Markets Update

AIG, the troubled insurance company completed its offering of $11.9 billion yesterday. The offering raised $6.5 billion through a sale of common stocks at $38 per share, a 1% discount to the closing price of $38.37 and raised $5.4 billion through equity linked units. The company is in the midst of raising $5 billion through bond offering and raise $3 billion through a sale of stock and equity units to meet higher demand. AIG is likely to raise $17 billion through various offering and may exceed its target of $12.5 billion after recording loss of nearly $19.5 billion in the last two quarters.

Hewlett Packard agreed to pay $25 per share or $13.9 billion for technology service company EDS. The purchase price is at 33% premium from the last trading price on Friday. HP with the acquisition of EDS hopes to bolster its service business from $17 billion in 2007 to nearly $40 billion in 2009. The deal is expected to GAAP earnings accretive in 2010.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. reported net sales for the first quarter 2008 increased 10.2% to $94.12 billion from $85.4 billion for the first quarter of fiscal year 2007. First quarter net income was increased 6.9% to $3.02 billion or $0.76 per diluted share compared to $2.83 billion or $0.68 per diluted share in the same quarter of 2007.

U.S. April retail sales fell 0.2% to $378 billion from March and rose 2% from a year ago. April retail sales in China rose 812 billion yuan, a 22% rise from a year ago. Retail sales in the urban area rose 23% to 556 billion yuan and in smaller town areas rose 20% to 258 billion.

UK inflation measure CPI jumped in April to 3% from 2.5% in March and Retail Price Index inflation rose to 4.2% from 3.8% in March. Rising food, alcohol and tobacco prices contributed to the index gains.

European Markets indexes

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 8.70 or 0.14% to 6,211.90, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 22.46 or 0.45% to close at 4,998.67 and in Frankfurt DAX index higher 24.24 or 0.34% to close at 7,060.19. In Zurich trading SMI increased 94.35 or 1.26% to close at 7,578.32.

North American Markets indexes

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 44.86 or 0.35% to a close of 12,831.45, S&P 500 closed down 0.54 or 0.04% to 1,403.04, and Nasdaq Composite Index increased 6.63 or 0.27% to close at 2,495.12. In Toronto TSX Composite closed down 50.96 or 0.35% to 14,615.11.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average, 16 closed higher, 14 closed lower, and none was unchanged.

Hewlett Packard led the decliners in the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a loss of 5.5% followed by losses in JP Morgan of 3.9%, in Citigroup of 2.7%, in General Motors of 2.65%, in Bank of America of 2.2%, and in Wal-Mart Stores of 2.2%. AIG led the gainers in the index with a rise of 1.6% followed increases in Alcoa of 1.1%, in IBM of 0.85%, and in Exxon Mobil of 0.7%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 242 stocks increased, 253 declined, and 5 were unchanged. Of the stocks in the index, 18 stocks fell more than 3% and 22 gained more than 3%.

Ambac Financial Group led the decliners in the S&P 500 index with a loss of 7.6% followed by losses in MBIA of 6.2%, in Hewlett Packard of 5.4%, in State Street Corp of 5.2% and in WaMu Inc of 4.3%.

Fluor Corp led the gainers in the S&P 500 index with a rise of 15% followed by gains in Constellation Group of 12%, in Peabody Energy of 6%, in Jacobs Engineering of 5.7%, and in McGraw Hill of 5.5%. Yahoo, SanDisk, Clear Channel and Moody’s added more than 4%.

South American Markets Indexes

Mexico led the gainers in the Latin American markets with a rise of 0.82% followed by increases in Peru of 0.65% and in Colombia of 0.32%. Venezuela led the decliners in the index with a loss of 1.6% followed by losses in Chile of 0.34% and in Argentina of 0.9%. Brazil added 0.12%.

Asian Markets

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed higher 210.37 or 1.53% to 13,953.73, in Hong Kong Hang Seng index increased 489.60 or 1.95% closed to 25,552.77. In Australia ASX 200 index lower 15.80 or 0.27% to close 5,812.70. In Malaysia KL Composite index decreased 6.55 or 0.51% closed to 1,286.54.

In South Korea Kospi Index increased 19.10 or 1.05% to close at 1,842.80, in Thailand SET index closed lower 2.94 or 0.35% to 839.28 and Indonesia JSE Index edged increased 40.90 or 1.72% to 2,418.90. Sensex index in India decreased 108.04 or 0.64% to 16,752.86.