By James Langton
(May 8 – 09:00 ET) – The big business news is that AIM’s parent Amvescap has confirmed that it is in talks with Trimark Financial Corp. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the fund giant will buy Trimark for $27 per share, a $2.3 billion deal. The WSJ says it will be paid 75% in stock and the rest in cash.
Markets are looking ahead to the U.S. Producer Price Index report on Friday, and the Bank of Canada’s semi-annual monetary policy report on Thursday.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is reporting that the annual rate of housing starts fell 5.4% in April to 158,300 units from 167,300 for March. Urban singles were down 12.7%, multiples were up 4.9 %.
JDS Uniphase Corp. has bought a firm in China, Fujian Casix Laser Inc., its first venture into China. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Stocks are down in Europe and futures are pointing negative in the U.S. this morning. News that the proposed Telefonica deal has collapsed is sending that stock down, joined by banks. Oils are up. London’s FTSE is down 49 points to 6189. France’s CAC 40 has dropped 28 points to 6517. The DAX is off 85 points in Germany to 7445.
In Asia stocks closed down again too. Japanese traders returned to work overnight and knocked the Nikkei back 239 points to 18199. The Hang Seng closed down even harder, dropping 567 points to 14901.