Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and ABN Amro are still in focus as their bid triangle unfolds. Reports suggested ABN Amro faces a lawsuit if it reneges on a deal to sell its LaSalle offshoot to Bank of America, which was agreed as part of the merger terms with Barclays. Barclays was 0.76% higher.
Miners staged a good performance with Antofagasta, up 0.71% and Xstrata, 1.88% higher. Fellow mining company Kazakhmys announced first quarter copper cathode production rose 12% and copper in concentrate production increased by 10% compared to the same period in 2006. Shares of Kazakhmys rose 0.61%.
Decliners
There were very few decliners including metal treatment group Bodycote which plunged 8.62% after the ending of Swiss group Sulzer bid interest on Friday. Royal Bank of Scotland is also slightly lower, down 0.21%.
9:15AM U.S. stock futures turned higher on inflation data.
U.S. stock futures moved slightly higher, lifted by upbeat earnings reports and data which showed that core inflation declined. The Commerce Department said that U.S. consumer spending grew 0.3% in March while inflation pressures declined. Personal income rose 0.7% in March, higher that the 0.6% expected by analysts. Core inflation was flat in March.
Among pre-market highlights, RadioShack (
RSH: chart) jumped 8.2% after it posted Q1 earnings rise on lower costs. The electronics retailer said net income jumped to 31 cents per share, up from 6 cents a year earlier, beating estimates of a profit of 14 cents per share. Humana (
HUM: chart) posted a 15% drop in Q1 profit but beat analyst expectations. The health insurer also raised its full-year earnings forecast.
In other corporate news, Merrill Lynch (
MER: chart) said it would buy back $6 billion in shares. Yahoo (
YHOO: chart) agreed to buy the 80% it didn't already own of Right Media for $680 million in cash and stock. Yahoo shares were flat. S&P 500 futures rose 1.7 points at 1,503.60 while Nasdaq 100 futures were down a half point at 1,906.25. Dow industrial futures rose 3 points. Stock futures moved higher after the economic data was released.
8:15AM Verizon Communications posted Q1 profit decrease.
Verizon Communications Inc. (
VZ: chart) posted Q1 earnings of $1.5 billion, or 51 cents a share, compared with a year-ago profit of $1.63 billion, or 56 cents a share. The latest results include an extraordinary loss of $131 million, or 5 cents a share, related to the Venezuelan government's nationalization of telecommunication services. The company said its net income before special items came to $1.63 billion or 56 cents a share, down from profit of $1.75 billion, or 60 cents a share last year.
Operating revenue rose 6.4% to $22.58 billion from $21.23 billion a year ago. Analysts had been expecting a profit of 53 cents a share on revenue of $22.49 billion. The company said its Verizon Wireless operations helped increase the company's total number of customers by 14.5% to 60.7 million. Verizon also said it expects strong demand for its FiOS TV offering, adding a net 141,000 new customers in the quarter. The stock added 1.2% in pre-market trading.
8:00AM NY-7:00PM Mumbai Sensex ends slightly lower on a late recovery.
The
Sensex on BSE finished 36.21 points, or 0.26%, lower at 13,872.37.
The market-breadth was positive as there were close to three gainers for every two decliners. As 1,403 stocks advanced, 1,071 declined and 75 stocks remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 18 advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 3,255 crore, lower than RS 3,770.65 crore on Friday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 7571.21 crore, compared with Rs 8,222.24 crore on Friday.
Economic news
The government today announced that it was considering export of 15 lakh tons of the sugar and other commodities, though international prices are not favorable. Sugar production in 2006-07 was estimated to be over 250 lakh tons and there was a carry over surplus of last season of 44 lakh tons, while the estimated consumption stood at 190 lakh tons.
India will probably issue a tender this week for the import of 1 million tons due to lower than expected harvest.
