4:30PM NY; 10:30PM Frankfurt; 2:00AM Mumbai - GLOBAL MARKETS

U.S. market averages climbed higher on deal news from Microsoft and General Electric. Microsoft agreed to buy aQuantive for $7 billion and General Electric is expected to sell its plastics division for $11 billion to Saudi Basic Industries. Oil traded close to $65 per barrel but three popular averages closed up nearly 0.6%. Broker upgrades lifted Intel, Verizon and IBM.

Bid news and rumors kept European market averages reaching new highs. Local news reports in the UK suggested the Cadbury is likely to receive multiple offers for its beverage division in the U.S. Oil companies Stat Oil and Royal Dutch Shell advanced on buyout rumors. British Airways lost 3% on quarterly net loss of $260 million dragging Air France-KLM and Deutsche Lufthansa with it. Legrand in France, UniCredit in Italy and STM Microelectronics in Holland advanced on buyout rumors.

The People’s Bank of China raised interest rates by 0.17% to 6.57% on one-year borrowing and increased rate paid to one-year fixed deposit by 0.27% to 3.06%. The Central bank also widened the trading band for Yuan to trade against dollar to 0.5% from 0.3%. Yuan has appreciated 7% in the last two years. Separately, China Mobile reported 5.3 million new subscribers in April and a total of 322 million subscribers. In India Bajaj Auto fell 8% on disappointment with its spin-off plan to separate auto and finance division. The stock has lost more than 17% value this week.


Yield on 10-year U.S. bond closed at 4.767% and the 30-year U.S. bond closed at 4.928%.

Gold gained $4.800 to close at $662.000 a troy ounce, silver increased 12 cents to end at $13.003 a troy ounce and copper declined $356.000 to close at $7290.000 per metric ton.

Oil gained 9 cents to close at $64.950 a barrel and heating oil lost 2.150 cents to finish at 191.520 cents a gallon. Natural gas decreased 13.1 cents to close at $7.994 per MMBtu. Gasoline went down 3.640 cents to end at 240.020 cents a gallon.

Asian markets closed lower on lower metal prices and data showing a drop in Japanese steel exports for March. The decliners were led by Japan with a decrease of 0.57%, Hong Kong with a decline of 0.43% and Singapore with a loss of 0.37%. The advancers were led by Indonesia with an increase of 1.27%, Philippines with an advance of 0.92% and Thailand with a gain of 0.61%. Australia lost 0.79%.

European markets finished higher on extended rally in the energy sector though the weaker airline stocks. The advancers were led by Norway with an advance of 1.63%, Germany with an increase of 1.44% and Belgium with a gain of 1.26%. There were no decliners.

Latin America markets finished higher but Canadian stocks were flat. The advancers were led by Mexico with an increase of 0.82%, Brazil with an advance of 0.52% and Argentina with a gain of 0.42%. There were no decliners. Canada finished flat with a slight advance of 0.01% with strength in the energy sector and declines in technology and financial stocks.

2:30PM NY, U.S. Market Movers

General Electric Co. (GE: chart) shares rose 1.7% after a media report that the conglomerate was close to picking a winning bidder for its plastics division in a deal that could pull in $11 billion.

CalAmp Corp. (CAMP: chart) shares tumbled 37.3% after the company said that its fourth-quarter net earnings declined to $732,000, or 3 cents per share, compared with $3.47 million, or 15 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Revenue climbed to $57 million versus $47.8 million. CalAmp forecasts a first-quarter net loss of 6 cents to 9 cents per share on revenue of $44 million to $47 million.

Sonic Solutions Inc. (SNIC: chart), software company, said its preliminary fourth-quarter revenue totaled $38.1 million. Shares of Sonic Solutions tumbled 11.8% after reported fiscal fourth-quarter net revenue of $38.1 million and said it expects first-quarter revenue of $33 million to $35 million.

AQuantive (AQNT: chart) shot up 77.4% after Microsoft announced a $6 billion deal to buy the digital marketing technology provider. After an echo of moves made by the tech giant's competitors, Microsoft fell 1.1%.

Trump Entertainment Resorts (TRMP: chart) climbed 20.5% after the company said that a potential buyer could be in the wings for the company, lifting it off its year lows.

1:00PM NY, 5:00 PM Frankfurt European stocks closed higher on extended rally in the energy sector.

European stock markets closed notably higher on Friday, hitting new multi-year highs on the back of extended rally in the energy sector and U.S. gains, generated by merger activity. Oil giants Royal Dutch Shell, Total and BP all posted gains above 2%. Shares of Bayer AG rose 3.5% on reports that the GE plastics unit could be sold for nearly $11 billion. TradeDoubler soared 9% as Microsoft's agreed buy of aQuantive, WPP's deal for 24/7 Real Media and Google's deal for DoubleClick put a premium on online advertising firms.

At the same time, airline stocks showed some weakness. British Airways fell 2.9% after the U.K. airline reported a quarterly loss. Lufthansa fell 1% and Air France-KLM declined 1.3%. However, Airbus parent EADS added 3.3% on expectations that the French government will put more money into the company. The German DAX 30 rose 1.4% to a seven-year high of 7,607.54, the French CAC 40 advanced 1.2% at 6,101.14, and the U.K. FTSE 100 climbed 0.9% at 6,640.90, its highest level since September 2000.