By James Langton
(April 25 – 09:00 ET) – Earnings will be the focus today with heavyweights such as Nortel Networks expected to report today. U.S. Stock futures are pointing to a strong upside open, but some traders remain worried about the technical strength in the NASDAQ. If it begins breaking downward again today there is some fear that there will be another big flight to quality from tech stocks.
In Europe stocks are up so far today. Telecoms are falling, but some old economy stocks are rising strongly. Germany’s DAX has gained 110 points to 7268. France’s CAC 40 is up 32 points to 6266. In London the FTSE is up 34 points to 6275.
The big merger news is in the paper group where International Paper Co. has made an unsolicited US$8.5 billion offer for Champion International Corp., trumping an earlier bid from Finnish rival UPM-Kymmene Oyj.
Volvo AB is buying Renault SA’s truck division for about US$1.5 billion of stock in the world’s second-largest truckmaker.
In Asia stocks were mixed. The Hang Seng closed up 13 points to 15380. The Nikkei dropped 207 points to 18272.