By James Langton
(November 9 – 09:00 EST) – Markets look set for an up opening this morning. Overnight markets rallied in Asia, and they are continuing to rally in Europe. S&P futures point to a strong opening too.
The latest U.S. import price report was released this morning. Prices are up 0.5%. Economists expected 0.1% to 0.3%; however if petroleum, up 5%, is excluded from the mix, prices did rise just 0.1%. The U.S. bond market is readying for US$15 billion worth of five-year notes today, and US$10 billion in 10 year notes tomorrow.
Statistics Canada announced that its social survey found a third of Canadians aged 25-44 consider themselves workaholics who need to spend more time with their family. You’re not alone out there.
In Europe, traders are driving stocks higher on merger mania in the drug sector. Novartis AG is reportedly looking at buying Monsanto Co. and that has all drug stocks up. Continued crude oil price rises are driving those stocks higher. London’s FTSE 100 is up more than 1.5%, about 99 points. They are up just as much, 1.66%, in Germany, with the DAX adding 94 points. The CAC 40 is up 52 points in France too.
In Asia stocks rallied, largely on relief over Wall Street’s muted reaction to Microsoft’s anti-trust troubles. The Nikkei closed up a cautious 51 points. The Hang Seng index added 149 points, more than 1%. There was some committed buying in its telecom stocks, such as Cable & Wireless and China Telecom.
In other business news, Celestica Inc. is announcing that its new public offering of 7 million subordinate voting shares, will be priced at C$89.24 per share or US$60.625 for total gross proceeds of approximately $624.7 million. The proceeds of the offering will go to capital expenditures, working capital and possible future acquisitions. The deal is being led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and RBC Dominion Securities Inc.